Mine, Baby, Mine: US needs to dig deep to help our military

If the US military is going to be able to keep our adversaries in check, then we need to mine for more rare earth minerals. China just restricted exports to 28 American defense firms.

Companies controlled by the CCP have helped China become the top producer and/or refiner of more than half of the 50 minerals the U.S. government has determined are critical. What’s more, the CCP is clearly willing to weaponize this advantage, as the latest moves to restrict U.S. access to certain critical minerals demonstrate.   Mark A. Smith is CEO and Executive Chairman of NioCorp Developments Ltd., which is developing the Elk Creek Critical Minerals Project in southeast Nebraska, designed to produce niobium, scandium, titanium and magnetic rare earths. He is the former CEO of Molycorp, Inc.

What does this mean? If the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses this to justify banning the export of components that contain critical materials such as rare earth permanent magnets – which I believe they will do – then the long-feared critical minerals war has begun. This was predicted on the pages of FoxNews.com in early 2023.