Exactly. Rare earth metals are “rare”, but both Montana and California are blessed with strategic minerals. Bureaucracy ensures they are off limits, all in the name of “protecting the environment”.
We’ve seen this play out over and over for 50 years, whether it is our timber resources, petroleum, and coal. Somebody dusted off the “Morgenthau Plan” from World War II near as I can tell.
Some NGO cutout will sue the government over some “endangered” Wilson’s Non-Binary Cockroach, and that, as they say, will be the end of that.
See also the indonesian payola over high quality coal deposits out west. I love wild open spaces as much as anyone, the people doing this don’t care about the “environment” they are just watermelons.
As with every word definition these days, it is actually the opposite. Same with “rare” earth minerals. They aren’t rare.