Rare Earths Drama

Few weekenders making the four-hour run from L.A. to Vegas notice the big mill works overlooking Interstate 15 at Mountain Pass Summit in California, near the Nevada line. Even fewer realize that the pale-pink buildings, gone patchy with age, are the focus of an extraordinary business drama that involves national security, China's monopolizing the strategic market in rare-earth metals, and one company's attempt to restore American preeminence in a crucial mining sector it once dominated. These sprawling buildings are owned by a Denver mining company called Molycorp, which is now spending nearly $1 billion to restart rare-earth-mineral production at Mountain Pass Summit and in the process revive a moribund U.S. industry.

Fortune