RE:RE:2 documents(s) added or updated in EIS Documents Record of D
the question about rare earths isnt production but processing. The USA has plenty of rare earths in spades. Much of our production goes to.....China, where they are processed. We cannot economically compete with Chinese indentured servant labor. But we not only have rare earths, we have gazillions of them. It is just economics, a matter of price. We can produce as much as we strategically need, IF we are willing to pay living wage labor to extract them & process them. We also have a bajillion tons of rare earths sitting in waste rock piles that were not worth processing at the time of production. As for copper, we have a lot, but not enough. So we have to buy copper from Chile & Australia, not a big deal. We dont have to be Number 1 at everything in the world. Only he "who does not play well with others" need worry about not having 100% native sourced minerals & metals. Most nations get along just fine importing, only a warring military machine cant get by by being nice to others to import what they need. We are an exporter of rare earths, we have plenty, what we dont have is 19th century pay scale labor for processing.