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The US has a huge rare earths mine in California.[1] Great technology. Non-polluting. Even the Sierra Club signed off. Bankrupted by cheap rare earths from China. Then, when rare earth prices went back up, hurt by Trump's tariffs. The current management hopes to be self-sufficient by next year, not needing to ship to or from China.

[1] https://www.scmp.com/business/commodities/article/3011687/ca...

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Wouldn't tariffs help a U.S. domestic rare earth mine? Unless the assumption is that China imports the majority of global rare earth production, even after being a huge rare earth producer.

In response to Trump's tariffs, China imposed tariffs. So they can't export. Mountain Pass only does basic processing right now; further refining requires a plant that's still being built. So they were exporting to China.

Tariffs only motivate big, long-term projects if you're sure the tariffs will be around for a while. If they're just a temporary bargaining point, building giant plants isn't a safe bet.

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