Thats actually part of the whole MP move. China wont allow the US to suddenly speed up purchases they have a hell of a system that tracks minerals movements. Last week they sent letters to various countries and threatened them with restrictions, bans, etc. if they did not follow the instructions/terms that China was selling them the refined rare earths for.

There are a couple of other companies that are in the process of spinning up but except for invoking war powers NEPA (National Environment Policy Act) takes years to navigate to open a mine. Its faster for the US to leverage equity to prevent NEPA and other BS lawsuits that derail these projects and drive the costs up. Thacker Pass has been in the process of getting all of their permits for I want to say is closing in on a decade.... One of the permits was a 17 month review process and they were sued by Envios claiming the 17 month review was rushed.....

On average factoring in the litigation mines went from taking 2.5 years to open to over 6 and counting. Now envoking war powers would remove these permitting issues but thats not an actual solution but neither is the government taking equity to stop litigation. These are temp. fixes while hopefully permitting reform one day passes.