Back when America still built things — and I mean really built things, from bombers to bridges, with a sense of purpose and permanence — there was a quiet little agency that kept the gears greased and the bulldozers roaring.
It wasn’t glamorous. It didn’t throw galas or host climate summits. But the U.S. Bureau of Mines made sure we had the raw materials to win wars, light cities, and invent the future.
Established in 1910, the Bureau of Mines was originally created to provide safety, efficiency, and sustainability to the mining industry.
Then someone in Washington, in a haze of neoliberal optimism and spreadsheet arithmetic, decided we didn’t need it anymore.
So, we shut it down in 1996, euthanized it like an old dog and handed the shovel to anyone overseas who could dig faster and cheaper. We outsourced our mineral muscle in the name of global trade, convinced that if we ever needed a rare earth element, we could just order it off the Chinese menu.
Well, that’s precisely what happened.
Because tomorrow’s gold rush won’t be mined. It’ll be minted.
Here we are, thirty years later, watching China ration the very materials we need to run our economy and defend our borders. And guess what? There’s no U.S. Bureau of Mines to call anymore. It’s gone. Like a fire station bulldozed in the middle of wildfire season.
The U.S. once had the largest and most advanced industrial base in human history, and now we’re in a fight to get it back.
If you want to know how empires decline in the 21st century, don’t look at tanks or treaties. Look at tantalum. Look at neodymium, cobalt, tellurium, dysprosium.
You won’t find them in history books, but they’re in every electric vehicle, drone, wind turbine, semiconductor, missile, and satellite. These are the minerals that run the modern world.
And guess who controls them? That’s right, China.
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China now dominates more than 80% of the global rare earth market. And that’s just the headline number. In some elements, their market share is closer to 95%.
Think about that every time you see them resist trade talks with President Trump.
If they wanted to, they could stop shipments tomorrow and bring American supply chains to their knees — not with bullets, but with the click of a customs order.
Mind you, this isn’t conspiracy talk or some Beltway fever dream. Truth is,the Pentagon has been ringing alarm bells about mineral dependence for years.
During the last trade skirmish, China didn’t just threaten a tariff — they dangled a full export ban on key minerals used in U.S. fighter jets and satellites. It was the geopolitical equivalent of saying, “Nice national defense system you’ve got there. It would be a shame if something happened to it.”
But here’s the real underlying issue: We’ve let ourselves become critically dependent on a strategic rival for the materials that fuel both prosperity and security. It's like building a spaceship but outsourcing the oxygen tanks to your biggest competitor.
But it’s not just China’s strength that should concern us — it’s our weakness.
We don’t refine enough. We don’t process enough. And most tragically, we don’t mine enough here at home. Not because we lack the resources, but because we lacked the political will.
That’s starting to change. And for the smart money, it’s the most important shift in resource policy since the Cold War.
Over the last twelve months, the U.S. government has quietly started to pivot — not with fanfare, but with funding.
We're cutting mineral deals with Indonesia, securing cobalt plays in the Congo, and building awkward alliances in Africa to secure future supply. The problem is that this is really just an interim solution — plugging holes in a sinking boat.
You see, the real prize isn’t overseas. It’s under our feet.
The United States is sitting on billions of dollars' worth of rare earths, lithium, and critical metals — from Idaho to Texas, Nevada to Wyoming. We don’t need to beg or borrow from Beijing.
What we need are shovels, drills, permits, and investment.
And that, dear reader, is exactly where the next U.S. mining boom is coming from.
The choice is yours: be a spectator in the next chapter of America’s industrial revival — or be a stakeholder.
Until next time,
Keith Kohl
Check us out on YouTube!A true insider in the technology and energy markets, Keith’s research has helped everyday investors capitalize from the rapid adoption of new technology trends and energy transitions. Keith connects with hundreds of thousands of readers as the Managing Editor of Energy & Capital, as well as the investment director of Angel Publishing’s Energy Investor and Technology and Opportunity.
For nearly two decades, Keith has been providing in-depth coverage of the hottest investment trends before they go mainstream — from the shale oil and gas boom in the United States to the red-hot EV revolution currently underway. Keith and his readers have banked hundreds of winning trades on the 5G rollout and on key advancements in robotics and AI technology.
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