I don't think that it makes sense. Rare earth elements aren't actually very rare, they don't have a lot of market value compared to other minerals [1], and there are already abundant known deposits in North America (including the United States).
There are two main reasons that REE production is dominated by China. One is that Chinese production is low-cost. Two is that the total market demand is small, so that (absent some long term price guarantee) adding another big REE production center outside of China will probably tank the market value and lose the investors money. See the history of the Mountain Pass mine in California:
This one mine produced most of the world's REE between 1965 and 1995. It closed in 2002 because it had a toxic spill that would be too expensive to remediate given the arrival of Chinese competition. In 2012 it reopened as a reaction to Chinese export restrictions on REE instated 2 years earlier. In 2015 global REE prices went back down and the Mountain Pass mine went bankrupt again. It resumed operating in 2018 after it was brought back out of bankruptcy. It relies on frosty US-China trade relations and government support to remain a going concern. There's not enough global demand for REE to keep Mountain Pass independently profitable whenever Chinese export restrictions get relaxed.
[1] In terms of total market value, I mean. Dysprosium has a high value per kilogram but the current annual demand for all rare earth elements combined is under $8 billion, compared to e.g. $20 billion for zinc alone.
There are two main reasons that REE production is dominated by China. One is that Chinese production is low-cost. Two is that the total market demand is small, so that (absent some long term price guarantee) adding another big REE production center outside of China will probably tank the market value and lose the investors money. See the history of the Mountain Pass mine in California:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Pass_Rare_Earth_Mine
This one mine produced most of the world's REE between 1965 and 1995. It closed in 2002 because it had a toxic spill that would be too expensive to remediate given the arrival of Chinese competition. In 2012 it reopened as a reaction to Chinese export restrictions on REE instated 2 years earlier. In 2015 global REE prices went back down and the Mountain Pass mine went bankrupt again. It resumed operating in 2018 after it was brought back out of bankruptcy. It relies on frosty US-China trade relations and government support to remain a going concern. There's not enough global demand for REE to keep Mountain Pass independently profitable whenever Chinese export restrictions get relaxed.
[1] In terms of total market value, I mean. Dysprosium has a high value per kilogram but the current annual demand for all rare earth elements combined is under $8 billion, compared to e.g. $20 billion for zinc alone.