I think the rare earth mines that tried starting up again were promptly driven under by China. For example, Molycorp (which started up production at the Mountai

I think the rare earth mines that tried starting up again were promptly driven under by China. For example, Molycorp (which started up production at the Mountain Pass mine in the US) was driven into bankruptcy a year ago soon after reaching full production. Not a bad deal for China at all - they got an almost decade-long monopoly on manufacturing using rare earth metals, which they can probably continue now, and those that tried to break their monopoly suffered massive losses.