Analyst notes:  The Department of Energy is seeing the problem that CSIA  Report identified some while ago. China has a corner on the world market for strategically vial materials in the rare earth market. This threatens the US abiliity to wage war, to conduct commerce, and to manufacture important products.We need our leaders to address this vulnerability. This includes pulling the red tape off American minining and refinement that made us leave the market in the first place! Are we to become more vulnerable because our government regulations do not take national security into consideration when limiting commerce! Wake up America, get a government that  wants America to succeed.

Here are some facts the NY Times identifies :

¶ At least 96 percent of the most crucial types of the so-called rare earth minerals are now produced in China, and Beijing has wielded various export controls to limit the minerals’ supply to other countries while favoring its own manufacturers that use them.

¶ “The availability of a number of these materials is at risk due to their location, vulnerability to supply disruptions and lack of suitable substitutes,” the report says, which also mentions some concerns about a few other minerals imported from elsewhere, such as cobalt from the Congo.

¶ DDozens of small mining companies hope to open new mines in the United States and elsewhere that could tap reserves of medium and heavy rare earths. But these small companies face formidable legal, financial, marketing and management obstacles, the Energy Department report said.