The Gathering Storm Series: Part 4 – Digging Deeper into the Dragon’s Veins
Word Count: 900 | Reading Time: 5 minutes
The Dragon Tightens Its Grip
In April 2025, the Chinese Communist Party imposed export controls on seven rare earth elements. These materials—samarium, neodymium, dysprosium, and others—are unfamiliar to most Americans, but they are essential to nearly every advanced technology in use today. From fighter jets to missile guidance systems, from smartphones to electric vehicles, these elements power both civilian progress and military deterrence.
The message from Beijing was unmistakable. These are not just metals. They are leveraging.
By limiting global access to critical materials, China seeks to transform its mining dominance into political dominance. It is not trade policy. It is a strategy. It is control.
The American Response Begins
For decades, the United States relied on the illusion of low-cost imports while allowing its own mining and processing infrastructure to decay. That chapter is ending. The nation has begun, at last, to rebuild its capacity—not only to extract these materials, but to refine, manufacture, and defend them.
This is not theoretical. It is happening now, in specific regions, with measurable progress.
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Mountain Pass, California, remains the only operational rare earth mine in the United States. Once abandoned, it is now being expanded under MP Materials, which plans to reestablish domestic refining capacity and end its reliance on Chinese intermediaries.
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Halleck Creek, Wyoming, operated by American Rare Earths, is rapidly emerging as one of the largest known rare earth deposits in North America. Their aim is not simply extraction, but vertical integration—a full-cycle American supply chain.
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Idaho’s Rare Earth Belt, spanning Lemhi Pass, Mineral Hill, and Diamond Creek, is being explored by Idaho Strategic Resources. With executive orders easing the permitting process, long-ignored reserves are now part of the national conversation.
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Elk Creek, Nebraska, developed by NioCorp, is focused on niobium, scandium, and titanium—critical inputs for the aerospace, defense, and green technology sectors. These minerals were once afterthoughts. Today, they are strategic necessities.
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Round Top, Texas, developed by USA Rare Earth, contains heavy rare earths including dysprosium and terbium, two of the most vital elements for permanent magnet production. The company is also building a magnet manufacturing facility in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This is the kind of industrial foresight that has been missing from American economic planning for a long time.
This is what sovereignty looks like: not dependence, but capacity.
Strategic Partnerships Abroad
Rebuilding domestic strength is necessary, but not sufficient. In the face of China’s global mineral monopoly, the United States is also forging international partnerships—alliances based not on ideology, but on mutual interest and shared security.
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In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United States is negotiating access to cobalt, lithium, and copper—elements that power everything from batteries to weapons systems. American companies, such as KoBold Metals, backed by prominent technology investors like Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, are entering the region with both commercial and strategic intentions. KoBold plans to invest up to $2.3 billion in developing the Mingomba copper mine, aiming to produce over 300,000 metric tons annually, making it one of the most significant such operations in the country.
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In Greenland, a U.S. delegation is evaluating one of the world’s largest untapped rare earth reserves: the Tanbreez deposit. In the past, this Arctic island was overlooked. Today, it represents a new frontier in resource diplomacy. KoBold Metals has also signed an agreement with Bluejay Mining to explore for critical materials used in electric vehicles, investing $15 million in exploration funding for the Disko-Nuussuaq project on Greenland’s west coast.
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In Australia, long-standing alliances are deepening. Joint ventures are already underway, positioning that nation as both a resource partner and a geopolitical ally in an increasingly divided Pacific.
These are not colonial ventures. They are strategic alliances. They are necessary steps in a world where reliance on authoritarian regimes often leads to coercion.
Standards that Matter
As the United States reenters the mining sector, it must do so with principles in mind. The environmental devastation and forced labor practices associated with Chinese operations must not be replicated under the American flag.
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New mining projects are being developed with strict environmental standards in place. Advanced technologies enable more precise extraction with minimal disruption to land and water systems.
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Equally important are labor standards. Partnerships must require fair wages, safety protections, and transparency—whether in Nebraska or the Congo. The mineral war must not become a moral failure.
We are not China. We must not become what we seek to replace.
A Return to Strategic Clarity
Rare earth elements are not rare. What has been rare is a lack of political will. That is now changing.
China’s decision to weaponize its mineral dominance has had an unintended consequence. It has reminded the West what it forgot—that national strength requires physical capacity. That sovereignty cannot be leased. That industrial freedom is a condition of political freedom.
The United States is responding. Slowly. Unevenly. But it is moving.
And as we explore our land and forge new partnerships abroad, we must remember: this is not just about resources. It is about choices. It is about whether the free world will allow the materials of its future to be controlled by a regime that does not respect freedom, truth, or human dignity.
The dragon’s veins run deep. But our own have not run dry.
They have been neglected.
That era is ending.
“The age of sleeping through supply chains is over. We dig, or we bow.”
Keywords: The Gathering Storm Series, rare earth elements, China export controls, U.S. mining, strategic materials, industrial freedom, economic sovereignty