The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

[OakesCS]

metal stockpiles

if the DOE is stockpiling zinc, tin, and cobalt i'd say they're desperately in need of over-hauling their plans.

the US has prodigious zinc resources and it's not limited to vats of hoarded pennies. Sn is widely distributed around the globe (Britain and Cornish miners would probably be happy to restart their mines on the US welfare dime) and there is a lot of available scrap. Canada and Australia are amongst the world's largest producers of Co and the US has large resources. Amazingly enough, Co is one of the few valuable things that Cuba has in abundance.

I think the Mountain Pass rare-earth deposit has barely been touched as far as mining is concerned and it's immediately adjacent to the interstate between LA and Lost Wages so if things got desperate we do have an easily accessible resource.