Consider the current uses of Rare Earth Elements (REE), list them if you need. Start with the Toyota Prius (the batteries), then go to solar panels, wind farms, laptops, and your phone. Next, consider that China supplies 85% of the world's consumption and temporarily cut off Japan's supply, as used in the Prius. An old mine in Southern California is being re-activated, the Mountain Pass Mine. Possibly production could supply enough REE's to keep us independent for a while.

Here at home (Santa Fe, NM), consider that the environmentalists want the Otreo Mesa, Wind Mountain REE mine by Geovic Mining not to happen. This would be a new mine; jobs, wages, royalty income, taxes for New Mexico. This would be a totally underground mine, a mine portal and a haul road. If China cuts off our supply of raw materials how do we get the REE's we need for the items on your list if this mine is not allowed to happen? I hope the computer your using is on that list, because that could be the last one you ever have.

So, what will you do if all the tools (or toys) we have become used to using go away? Do we step back 50-years to when I was in my twenties? No cell phone, no laptop, no alternative energy sources. Submit your feelings; to-mine or not to-mine here and at Mountain Pass, California