How is it that that is the only place on Earth that those minerals can be mined? No other substances are limited to one place, as far as I know.
Molycorp will reopen one in California. The RE stocks have doubled in the last year. Molycorp will have a IPO soon.
Consider that there are other factors besides the presence of the material in mineable quantities.
I talked with a guy today who is importing frac sand (size graded quartz sand used to prop open the fractures generated during hydrofracking the pay horizons in an oil well). It costs less to ship it halfway around the world and 2000 miles from the nearest port than it does to dig up similar sand in the US.
The difference is in the regulatory hoops one must jump through to dig up sand here. Any mining operation in the US faces the same problems, and that is what shut down the last rare earth mineral mine in the US.
Sadly, at the core of that problem lies another: the people with the expertise needed to extract these minerals are in shorter supply than they used to be, and their diminishing numbers of would-be replacements aren't getting the vital OJT they will need to avoid reinventing the wheel if and when we restore our manufacturing economy.