I'd have thought the same as you, though I very recently heard some hopeful news on that front: https://www.marketplace.org/2021/04/30/the-u-s-is-trying-to-recl

I'd have thought the same as you, though I very recently heard some hopeful news on that front: https://www.marketplace.org/2021/04/30/the-u-s-is-trying-to-reclaim-its-rare-earth-mantle/ https://www.marketplace.org/2021/04/30/the-u-s-is-trying-to-... The relevant part is kind of buried but tl;dr: new mines do take a while (but are in the works). Luckily, there are old mines that can be productively restarted: > “Our mission as a company is to restore the full supply chain,” said James Litinsky, CEO of MP Materials, the new owner of the U.S.’s only rare-earth mine, located in Mountain Pass, in California’s Mojave Desert. > “We are probably further ahead than people realize.” > MP Materials restarted the mine in 2017; the previous owner, Molycorp had declared bankruptcy a few years prior. > “It was mismanaged for some time,” Litinsky said. Mountain Pass’ reserves are particularly rich in rare earths and now supply, in unpurified form, 15% of the rare earths consumed globally each year.