How America outsourced the materials of modern power—and what it will take to get them back
In the middle of the Mojave Desert, just off Interstate 15 between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, sits the Mountain Pass mine. Surrounded by a high plateau of pale rock and desert scrub, this 600-foot-deep open pit hums with activity. Trucks haul blasted rock to the surface, where it is crushed in pursuit of valuable minerals that are scattered thinly through the earth’s crust yet remain indispensable to modern life.
