Interesting article....and yes the USA needs to start mining again for rare metals.
The problem is that supporters of Free Trade with Communist China do not want the USA competing with the ChiComs.
Also, note that the near majority of those who support Cap And Trade are also the biggest Free Traders on the planet (Al Gore, Dianne Feinstein, the Clintons, etc...).
If our mining companies can get thru the red tape of Free Traders/WTO/NAFTA etc....then they will have hurdles from the Can And Trade people.
Eventually they were discovered to not be "rare", but, at the same time folks discovered radioactivity ~ which meant they had to be very safety minded when it came to initial mining and separation safety standards (that would be crushing, grinding, dissolving in acids, etc.
The Chinese have plenty of people around who are willing to waste human beings rather than work safely. Apparently they discovered some time recently that their "rare earths" mines were creating some hazardous conditions.
Do you recall about several years ago the Chinese had to shut down the water supplies in several major cities (with millions of people) due to mining and toxic industrial waste washing downstream?
So what was that stuff? Do you imagine the authorities were under some serious pressure to "fix the problem"?
Even the Chinese bosses drink water and live downstream.