Next to Joshua Tree National Park, a mining company is staking its claim for rare earth minerals

An Australian company has launched a rare earths mining project just outside Joshua Tree National Park in critical desert tortoise habitat, an area the company’s director refers to as an “emerging heavy rare earth district.”

The company, Dateline Resources Ltd., says that historical sampling of the area in the Pinto Mountains south of Twentynine Palms found enrichment in elements key to powering electric vehicles, wind turbines and defense systems.

The United States depends heavily on China for its supply of these critical minerals, a major national security vulnerability the Trump administration has sought to address through a series of regulatory changes and financial incentives aimed at shoring up domestic production.

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