US Can Produce Rare Earths If China Stops Exports–But There’s a Catch

The Epoch Times ^ | April 23, 2025 | John Haughey

[gw-ington]

Never trust lying Communist politician liars. All Communist politicians constantly lie. That's rule #1 when dealing with any and all Communist politicians.

President Bill Clinton was too stupid to realize that and it explains why President Clinton was thrilled to help Communist China join the WTO. The Communist Chinese politicians promised President Clinton and the rest of the free world that (new WTO member) Communist China would dutifully follow the WTO rules. LOL. As if. Of course, the Communist China politicians deliberately and brazenly violated many WTO rules ... and continue brazenly violating many WTO rules ... as expected (by me, at least).

Then you had President George W. Bush (just as dumb as Clinton), then President Oblamea (just as dumb as Clinton & Bush), then President Trump (45, who tried to address Communist China issues in his first term while Democrats constantly bashed him), then pResident Bye-dein (just as dumb as Clinton, Bush & Oblamea), then President Trump (47, who is now more intensely pressuring dishonest Communist China's lying so-called "leaders").

Dishonest Communist China's lying so-called "leader" egotistically assumes he is far smarter than the entire 1.4 Billion Chinese population of citizens. So he says, I've decided I will be in charge of Communist China for an indefinite period (i.e., as long as I feel like it). So Xi could be in charge of Communist China for another quarter of a century (even though he's already been in charge of China for at least 12 years). That's Communism for you. Totalitarianism.

And dumb Democrats keep cluelessly calling President Trump a "totalitarian." Too funny. If President Trump were a totalitarian, he would have declared himself the victor in the 2020 election, stubbornly remained in office, and had the military keep Bye-dein out of the Oval Office. But President Trump didn't do that. In fact, President Trump and First Lady Melania greeted pResident Bye-dein and his wife at the White House, in an exchange of power. So, dumb Democrats, how exactly is President Trump a "totalitarian?" (Cricket sounds ...) Communist China's Xi Jinping is clearly a totalitarian. The exact opposite of President Trump. Sheesh. Dumb Democrats.

[Carry_Okie]

On the downside, the environmental groups are probably already fielding jump teams to search for a rare and endangered weed or insect that can power 30 years of lawfare.

There is an answer to that. Most of those rare plants need disturbance to germinate. The insects follow. They are in that status BECAUSE OF ENVIRONMENTAL PRESERVATION. We should sue the greenies and prosecute their supporting NGOs for resource racketeering on behalf of those who wanted to export production. Twenty five years ago, I called it "The Strategy of the Commoners" in this book.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Hopefully the same 5-year delay. That will be consumed by blathering about this can be used to make that determination. I cannot help but think about the Empire State Building and Boulder Dam and other such projects that were constructed without immediate monetary gratification, or in record time. Yes the costs of this are bound to be expensive, but “expensive” is a relative term when it comes to comparing the expenditures to illegal alien quilt making festivals and DEI initiatives.

[bigbob]

He’ll have his Boring Company make a mining machine and sell the tunnel too!

[1Old Pro]

Rare earth mining and processing is “extremely capital intensive and once you have invested and you have started with the operations … these guys, they won’t invest if they don’t see they’re going to be operating the mine for 10 or 20 years,” said Didier Lesueur, CEO of the Western Research Institute in Laramie, Wyoming.

Claw back the billions wasted on paying off student loans and offer incentives to mine and refine rare earths.

[x]

Mountain Pass in Nevada provided a lot of the world's rare earths until recently.

We could produce our own rare earths.

But, please, tell the kids and pets that these things are usually poisonous.

[JimRed]

While the United States has most of the 17 rare earth elements and 50 critical minerals underground, it has no industrial capacity to refine them into processed metals and magnets, according to Melissa “Mel” Sanderson, American Rare Earths board member and Critical Minerals Institute co-chair.

Elon's next project, after DOGE?

[Gen.Blather]

So close you could hit it with a baseball from the US border you’ll find America Plateing. Putting a chrome finish on something is too dirty for the NIMBY crowd. The US can mine the minerals here and refine them in Mexico. They’d still be a foreign import but the lawfair element would vanish

[fella]

I heard about a Fort Worth factory that was processing rare earths to make magnets so I groted it with this result;

“Yes, there is a Fort Worth factory that processes rare earths to make magnets. MP Materials operates a facility called Independence in Fort Worth, Texas, which has begun commercial production of neodymium-praseodymium (NdPr) metal and trial production of automotive-grade, sintered neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets. The facility, located in the AllianceTexas development, sources its raw materials from MP Materials’ Mountain Pass mine in California and is designed to produce approximately 1,000 metric tons of finished NdFeB magnets per year, with a gradual production ramp starting in late 2025. These magnets are critical for electric vehicles, robotics, defense systems, and other technologies, and the facility aims to restore a fully integrated U.S. rare earth magnet supply chain.”

50 years ago my Father in law work in the mine at Mountain Pass.

[fella]

I wonder how many tons of rare earth materials go to the dump each week instead of being recycled.

[Red Badger]

It’s a start!..............

[curious7]

Declare it a national security vulnerability and move forward. The watermelons can be warned off once, then tossed in the gitmo slammer if they ignore it (include their upstream funders like soros when tossing into gitmo).

[Coffee_drinker]

Agree Greenland is important for it’s minerals and also for its ideal location for a military base.

[Trump Girl Kit Cat]

Makes me nauseous to know that our legislators have LET the environment wackos put this country into a position where we are NO LONGER self SHUT DOWN THE DAMN EPA NOW!!!!!

[Red Badger]

Almost like it was planned, eh?....................

[zeestephen]

The Musk Boring Company was a really cool idea, right up there with Musk Robo-Taxi.

I followed Boring closely for a couple years, but the necessary new technology is developing slowly and expensively.

Regardless, I admire tech savvy entrepreneurs, and Musk is still one of the all time best.

[bobbo666]

It was outsourced so that relatives of politicos who forbade all domestic mining could get rich by doing deals with the CCP.

US has ample supplies and could easily mine — less than a year. So, outsource processing to non-CCP countries until US refiners are up to speed.

[SFConservative]

It’s better to develop resources outside of China now ...

Africa, for example. That huge continent has got to be loaded with rare earth ores. Of course, China has already been working hard for 2 decades to lock up Africa's resources for itself.

But if we have enough within our borders and just need to overcome all the insane regulatory restrictions, that seems to be the priority.

[falcon99]

““The short answer is if China bans the sale of rare earth minerals to the United States” permanently, “that’s a positive thing because it’s going to force the United States to find a solution,””

The key.

[Mean Daddy]

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