US fed investment in Australian rare earth mines was announced this year. I'm unsure if it's more than loan guarantees and a purchase agreement. There was discussion of a floor price but it focussed on the distorting qualities.
The one to watch is Iluka who received a AUD 1.65b loan from the Australian Government to build the Eneabba rare earth plant, currently to come online in 2027. Their stockpile is xenotime and monazite and Yytrium and Erbium are a priority for processing.
Not sure about Lynas and whether they have access to those rare earths from an alternate source to feed into their plant. The Mt Weld mine is carbonatite and mostly LRE rather than the Yytrium and Erbium heavy xenotime/monazite Iluka have stockpiled.
I'm pretty sure this is just an economic problem right? It has long been convenient to exploit countries that have low wages and make little effort to price in the negative externalities of extracting these resources. It's not like the imperial core doesn't have the minerals, we're just currently not getting them out of the ground.
From a standard exploration / production boom / bust mineral resource supply / demand PoV this is commonplace forward looking anticipation being weighed against the upfront capital costs of processing infrastructure investment.
https://www.iluka.com/products-markets/rare-earth-products/
Not sure about Lynas and whether they have access to those rare earths from an alternate source to feed into their plant. The Mt Weld mine is carbonatite and mostly LRE rather than the Yytrium and Erbium heavy xenotime/monazite Iluka have stockpiled.
But then again I certainly wouldn't want to be the youth of today and expect the same outcome.
From a standard exploration / production boom / bust mineral resource supply / demand PoV this is commonplace forward looking anticipation being weighed against the upfront capital costs of processing infrastructure investment.