China is in the driver's seat on current production and stockpiles, which could make a multi-state OPEC stranglehold on oil look positively great by comparison.
But with a massive find on the Idaho-Montana border we seem to have caught a break:
Recent USGS figures estimate that the U.S. holds rare earth ore reserves of up to 13 million metric tons. By contrast, the entire world produced just 124,000 metric tons in 2009 - but it would take both time and money for the U.S. to become self-sufficient in producing rare earths.
Unless environmentalists manage to screw it up by finding some endangered rat species there and blocking all mining.
You never know.
