oops - that was Dec. 2012 --- but you get the idea.
All that really changed between then and now are some additional, manageable hiccups in the Mt. Pass facility but much more importantly widespread so-called "illegal" Chinese rare earths flooding the market. Even five years or more ago, widespread "illegal" facilities were widely known to exist in China.
Can the government of China finally be successful as an organization with regulating it's own production and pricing goals, as well as (and, long-term, much more importantly) environmental and public health of it's land, water, air, current generations and future generations? Radioactive and heavy metal contamination can have very serious impacts on the genetics of current and future residents. There is simply no way to underestimate the enormous damage being done for quick and easy money with very high-risk, high-reward activities like rare earth mining and processing.
