[resonantjacket5]

wouldn't just having a small mineral stockpile alleviate much of the danger while turning back on the mine? while having a chip stockpile for too long isn't really too feasible because of how fast chips are deprecated.

Though I know it is a bit more complicated with refineries etc...

[Animats]

The US used to keep sizable stockpiles of raw materials in case of another WWII-style war. There are still stockpiles of oil and medical supplies.[1] DoD has some stockpiles, but only of stuff needed for a war.

[1] https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/state-us-strategic-stockpil...

[remarkEon]

Minerals aren't evenly distributed on planet earth.

[redis_mlc]

I can't think of any mineral that the US doesn't have (in the ground.)

However, some are no longer mined in the US, like tin, since 1993.

(For people unfamiliar with "rare earth minerals", they're not rare. But today their mining and processing is mostly done in China.)

[remarkEon]

That isn't really the point, though. The US may have "all of the good minerals", but does it have enough? With the right purity and consistency? In areas where the minerals are extractable without major environmental implications?