On the minerals front, the US doesn't need anything from Ukraine. Most of the minerals mentioned, except titanium, are un-mined deposits. Or things the US has p

On the minerals front, the US doesn't need anything from Ukraine. Most of the minerals mentioned, except titanium, are un-mined deposits. Or things the US has plenty of already, such as oil, natural gas, coal, and iron. Here's a rundown: - Rare earths: I've mentioned the MP Minerals, Mountain Pass, CA mine before. The US doesn't have enough rare earth refining capability, and China won't export the technology. So US ore goes to China for processing. Or did, until DoD paid for a separation plant at Mountain Pass. That problem is close to being solved. That new separation plant is running. A plant for the final step, making magnet-ready metal, has been built in Texas, again by MP Minerals, and it's about ready to open. What's happened with rare earths is not that they're rare. It's that China undercut US prices so much that the Mountain Pass mine went bankrupt. Twice. In 2015, there was a rare earths glut. Look at WSJ rare earths articles back to 2011. There are large un-mined rare earth deposits in Colorado and Wyoming, with startups talking about mining them. Whether this makes economic sense is unclear. If all those start up, the price will crash again and they all go bust. Three years ago, the US rare earths situation looked bad. Not today. - Uranium The US has plenty of uranium resources. Canada and the US are historically the biggest producers. - Titanium Titanium ore has supposedly been discovered in Tennessee. See https://iperionx.com/ https://iperionx.com/ Are those guys for real? Not clear. - Lithium The US produces about 75% of the lithium it uses. New deposits have been found in Arkansas: https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/unlocking-arkansas-hidden-treasure-usgs-uses-machine-learning-show-large https://www.usgs.gov/news/national-news-release/unlocking-ar... And in Nevada: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCWeZiVsotc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCWeZiVsotc - Graphite China is the leading producer, but Canada and Norway are ramping up. There hasn't been US production of natural graphite since the 1950s. US production of synthetic graphite satisfies most US demand. (https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/pp1802J https://pubs.usgs.gov/publication/pp1802J) Several new synthetic graphite plants are being built in the US. As we've seen in rare earths, when the cheaper sources raise their prices, domestic production increases. It seems to take about three to five years to get a big mining operation going. Quietly, during the previous administration, there was funding for US mineral projects in rare earths, graphite, and lithium. It's no secret, but most coverage is from sites that cover mining and minerals.