US bill calls for all-American effort to boost rare-earth supply

Sen. Rubio suggests establishing 'cooperative' to combat China monopoly

20190711N rare earth reuters

A front-end loader is seen at California's Molycorp's Mountain Pass Rare Earth facility. China's threat to restrict rare earth exports would cause disruptions across U.S. high-tech supply chains. © Reuters

ALEX FANG, Nikkei staff writer

NEW YORK -- U.S. Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced a bill in Congress Thursday to boost the country's rare-earth industry, in an effort to break American advanced manufacturing's reliance on importing key metals and compounds from China.

The legislation calls for the establishment of a privately funded and operated cooperative to build a fully integrated domestic rare-earth value chain.

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