I’m finding it difficult to believe that this would represent the first ever survey “in modern times” of critical rare earth minerals. This has been a known issue for a long time. At one time the federal government had stockpiles of all sorts of things - including mohair, helium, and crystals - for crystal radios! Chrome and Vanadium are well known, but others are necessary for aerospace applications, the alloys for rocket engines &c. Seems to me there was one particular mine in NW Montana that was the sole US source for one of the minerals, and the greenies succeeded in shutting it down.
During World War II the US targeted ball bearing plants from the air in Nazi Germany. Without bearings - nothing rolls, not for very long. The same principle applies with respect to certain minerals. Our adversaries know what they are doing.
“... the federal government had stockpiles of all sorts of things ...”
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Similar thinking led to the creation of our “national forests”
for the availability of wood to use in shipbuilding.