How? I can see the benefits to whatever companies are involved but how does this benefit the taxpayer?
The US economy and taxpayers would benefit through royalty and tax payments to the US Treasury and from a more secure and abundant supply of rare earth metals.
Part of the idea is to keep the nasty mining out of the US - cheaper to do it in Ukraine. I’m no enviro-whacko, but there are major concerns with some of this mining. If you think RFK is worried about toxins in foods...
The main concern from a national security standpoint is diversifying supply. From an economic standpoint, if supply is tight & demand is high, maximizing global supply keeps our prices of the finished products down.