America’s reliance on foreign rare earth minerals has been a national security vulnerability for decades, and the truth is blunt: China still dominates the midstream and refining stages that actually turn ore into the magnets and alloys our military and industries need. Beijing controls roughly the vast majority of refining capacity while the U.S. supplies significant raw ore but lacks the downstream plants to make finished products at scale.
There’s progress at home, but it is painstaking and slow because we’re trying to build an industrial supply chain from scratch in a country hamstrung by permitting delays and regulatory red tape. Companies like MP Materials at Mountain Pass have invested heavily to restore parts of a domestic chain, and they’ve managed to process more domestically than we did a few years ago — yet China’s lead in magnets and refinement remains enormous.
Private miners are finally stepping up. Ramaco Resources discovered a major deposit at its Brook Mine in Wyoming and is targeting pilot production and a commercial plant in the latter half of this decade, aiming to begin refining and producing magnet-grade material in the coming years. That’s the kind of American ingenuity we need, but a few projects are not a replacement for a comprehensive industrial policy that unleashes the private sector.
Washington is waking up to the danger — lawmakers have even proposed a $2.5 billion independent agency to accelerate domestic critical mineral production, and recent Defense Department and administration moves have poured billions into securing supply chains. These are necessary steps, but too often they come with more bureaucracy and planning meetings instead of faster permitting and clearer incentives that actually move dirt and build plants.
We must be blunt about the hard reality: building a complete mine-to-magnet supply chain takes years, often a decade or more, because refining facilities require specialized chemistry, waste handling, and permits that drag on in America’s slow regulatory system. Expect a multiyear timeline for true independence unless we dramatically reform how projects are approved and financed. The clock is not in our favor, and time is a strategic asset we are squandering.
The global picture is shifting too — allies and private firms are forming partnerships and building processing hubs outside China, and even strategic partners in the Middle East are offering investment opportunities for Western processing facilities. These deals show that reliable non-Chinese supply chains are possible, but they need market-driven support, not purely political theater.
Conservatives should demand hard action: streamline permits, offer tax credits and low-interest loans for refinery construction, expedite defense offtakes to create guaranteed demand, and cut needless regulations that drive projects overseas. This is not a call for runaway government control; it’s a call to remove obstacles so American companies can compete and win, backed by clear national-security priorities.
Finally, remember why urgency matters — Beijing has shown it is willing to use economic leverage and tariffs as geopolitical weapons, and leaving our defense and high-tech industries dependent on an adversary is unconscionable. Patriots and policymakers must treat rare earths like the strategic resource they are: act fast, empower American industry, and stop trusting that someone else will bail us out when global tensions flare.
