The U.S. aims to breathe easy amid China’s chokehold on rare earths, but loosening the grip takes years of concerted effort

Mining equipment sits inside the pit at the Mountain Pass mine, operated by MP Materials, in Mountain Pass, California, U.S. America's top rare earths producer, MP Materials, is expanding its vertical integration of mining and magnets production in the U.S. after years of shipping its output to China because there was no refining capacity available to handle its production. Photographer: Joe Buglewicz/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The watershed moment came in July when the federal government became the largest shareholder of MP Materials, a California miner of rare earth elements for the oft-overlooked but critical magnets that help connect the global economy.

The government’s unusual foray into private industry was accompanied by new rules setting minimum U.S. market prices for some of these materials—a pricing floor it said was necessary to protect MP Materials from Chinese competitors it accused of “dumping” their goods at artificially low prices.