The Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine in Southern California is reviving with a patriotic twist, with workers wearing US flag patches and souvenir crystalline chunks of orange rare-earth ore. The mine’s regeneration has received U.S. government backing, including funding from the Department of Defense, as part of a Washington plan to rebuild American presence in a metals market forfeited to China’s lower-cost production decades ago. The mine’s revival is the creation of James Litinsky and Michael Rosenthal, financiers in their mid-40s who have known each other since childhood. They are doing international deals to supply companies such as Japan’s Sumitomo Corp., as the worldwide race for rare-earth self-sufficiency intensifies.
Rare earths are the foundation of the green transition in China, the U.S., and everywhere. They are used in devices from smartphones to fighter jets, and their magnets are many times stronger than those traditionally fashioned from iron. The recovery of MP’s mine in the Mojave sands is a microcosm of the world’s central economic rivalry and the bigger fight to save the planet. China is now the world’s largest producer of rare earths, accounting for an estimated 70% of output last year and having the world’s largest reserves, totaling 44 million tonnes of rare-earth-oxide (REO) equivalent.
The rare-earths story echoes that of chip manufacturing, where Washington is scrambling to recover lost status. The U.S. has always retained significant capacity in advanced chip design, but rare earths production was zero on U.S. soil as recently as 2017. By last year, Mountain Pass accounted for the entire 14% U.S. share of world rare-earth output, but the scale is still relatively modest.
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