Turns out the USA already mines all the critical minerals it needs (like cobalt, lithium, rare earths) - we just throw them out instead of using them.
Not surprised. I worked with an industrial chemist who was an efficiency expert - he was convinced that the USA's infrastructure was built on the principle of "Energy is free, resources are free, just make stuff whatever way is easiest." He saw so many processes which used NatGas to heat a vat, then cooled the contents using chillers, then NatGas again to heat, etc. He cut the cost of production significantly by transferring heat between vats using heat exchangers, increased cooling efficiency through piping changes - well known methods that the original designers just couldn't be bothered to do, because energy is free, right?
I also knew a pharmaceutical VP who told of getting a request for a particular chemical used in manufacturing. He contacted headquarters in Switzerland, they got back with a good price, he made the sale. When he next visited the main office, they showed him the "production" facility - the chemical was a byproduct of a process they were already doing, and rather than throw it out, they'd been packing it away in vacuum sealed boxes in unused rooms of the building for decades because it would be wasteful to throw it away. As it happened, that "waste product" became a sizeable revenue stream for the company - any US firm would have just trashed it.
