My understanding of the rare earths issue is that the reason China controls that much of the production is because all the extraction & production elsewhere shu

My understanding of the rare earths issue is that the reason China controls that much of the production is because all the extraction & production elsewhere shut down due to an inability to compete with China's prices. You basically have to open pit enormous areas to get any quantity of them. If the global rare earth prices rise enough, or if China continues to try to manipulate its exports to ensure that products using rare earths are manufactured within its borders, then mines eleswhere will open.