In the U.S. trade war with China, rare earths are a critical battleground. Jon Wertheim reports from the only active rare earth mine in the US that is challenging China’s near-monopoly over the strategic metals that are key components in smartphones, robotics, fighter jets, and drones. Sunday.
JON WERTHEIM: An hour southwest of Las Vegas in the guts of the Mojave sits the only active rare-earth mine in the US, an unlikely battlefield in our trade war with China, which has a near monopoly over these strategic metals. When Beijing choked off supplies last year, James Litinsky and his company got the call.
— We got called into the Pentagon, and it was clear that there was a directive from the president to solve this problem as quickly as possible.