Here is a video from the Molycorp site on Mountain Pass along the CA-NV border. Granted, it is a PR piece, but it is worth seeing regardless. To date, the Mountain Pass mine is the only significant Rare Earth Elements (REE) operation in the US.
There has been a large amount of REE exploration in North America in the past several years. I think the rush at Mountain Pass relates to more than just capturing market share from the Chinese. A large number of REE deposit discoveries could translate to excess capacity on the market in a few years. Especially if the economy recovers. As the cycle proceeds, only a few players will survive in North America.
More Molycorp PR-
Avalon Rare Metals is a Canadian mining company engaged in rare earth extraction. Another Canadian REE company is Stan’s Energy Corp.
Yttrium dreams.
Lamentations on Chemistry 
So the ads on ACS Careers looking for inorganic chemists or chemical engineers to work for various mining firms are a sign of an impending rare earth bubble? 😉
From what I can tell, there is a bit of a mining bubble in general right now. I think that gold, silver, and PGM exploration and mining are hot. Everyone wants to cash in their bullion while prices are high.
Paul Hodges would probably say this has something to do with central bankers. Interesting how these impersonal forces make themselves real.
After a Friday seminar on Gadolinium MRI contrast agents, how perfect!
Thanks for Rare Earth Friday Gauss!
We (our consulting business) had some experience with the market for RE chemicals back a few years ago when it looked like the Mountain Pass site was going to come back on stream. Then the Chinese made their run at Unocal and it seemed the whole idea fell apart.
Makes for an interesting story how the US bungled and lost its position in REs and how political decisions taken back in the early 2000s have come back to haunt our policy makers and the military establishment (which depends on access to RE materials).