I have been ready about MolyCorp’s mine in the Mojave Desert for years. They finally got approval to re-open it in 2010.
Where is the product from this mine?
If the need were that critical, they should have been in production in 2011.
The problem with MolyCorp is that their RRE resources are of the light rare earth variety. They do not have a large percentage of the valuable neo and dysprosium that are used in the most powerful magnets.
Another issue with rare earth mining is radioactive materials. RRE like to be found with uranium and other radioactive elements. This was the original issue with MolyCorps mine in the desert.