A good read. China has been buying mining assets in other countries unabated. I remember Molycorp and a few others. the last administration was out to lunch on this issue.
Molycorp
China pulled a standard oil and sold REEs below market to make certain companies like Molycorp could not compete in the U.S., Some-ting you can do when you are a command economy protecting your monopoly. (That, coupled with Hostility to any mining in Liberal states like CA discouraged REE mining.)
Note that a lot of the managment in Molycorp (which is now partly owned by China) are attempting to open a Mine targeting Niobium and Scandium in Elk Creek NE. (Niocorp, Niobf). Because China has no Scandium mines They can’t sell scandium below market. (Scandium can be somthing like $1500 to $2500 a kilogram. Used to create a weldable aluminum alloy with about 30% reduction in weight.)
Texas Mineral Recources, TMRC has an REE mining site in S/w Texas, Medallion REsources, MLLOF is attemting to process REES from Monzanite sands from the southern U.S., UCcore, UURAF, is trying to mine the Bokan Ridge (?) in Southeast Alaska.