rare earth minerals...are crucial not mainly for wind power but for hitech armaments.

Well, I knew that iridium is often used as a "flashing" over metal parts used in electronics, as I used to purchase rotary switches with iridium flashings for audio console applications, and iridium is a rare earth, the one whose deposition at the boundary of the Cretaceous marked the extinction of the dinosaurs, of which my console was one.  :-)

If they are important primarily to hitech armaments the production could be guaranteed by the US Government, but commercial products would still cost more than alternate products made with Chinese raw materials, not to mention virtually free labor. Plus any commercial use of "strategic" materials would involve the user with bureaucratic requirements, etc.

Others could better judge the likelihood of investments for rare earth mines being funded absent guarantees, but I would favor slapping an ~ 20% tariff on ANY product containing embargoed "strategic" materials. And while we are at it, phase in tariffs to cover the cost of providing health care and retirement benefits to Chinese workers. Were China to respond by dumping $US they would be hurting themselves and the Fed is already involved in massive QE anyway.  What does another $2-3 trillion matter. It is fiat money anyway. Deal with consequences with new fiats.  :-)

The US would have to pay more for domestically manufactured consumer goods but would have a vastly improved national accounts balance. The ones hurt would include those who bet on the "manufacture everything in China" strategy. All of the "Free Trade" "Globalization" bull shit has mostly been propaganda in the service of the financial sector.  Time for an Industrial Policy worthy of the name that serves the interests of the average US citizen instead of the existing de-industrialization policy that serves the interests of a parasitical financial sector.  

Chop! Chop!      USA!  USA!  USA!

"It is not necessary to have hope in order to persevere."