From Denver Post via Geology.com:
... China may rule the increasingly ravenous world market for rare metals used to make smartphones, clean-energy technology, guided missiles and bombs.
But Colorado and other Western states also contain significant caches of rare metals — the makings of a modern-day gold rush.
Mining companies, the federal government and state agencies are pushing to find out just how much potential new money lies beneath the dirt.
Colorado Geological Survey director Vince Matthews says mining for rare-earth and other exotic metals could infuse states with severance tax revenues and jobs, while lessening U.S. dependence on China...
Also: The Rare Act 0f 2010