After this news MCP and AVL are up...

http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2011/04/07/washington-mulls-stockpiling-rare-earths/?mod=yahoo_hs

With China building up its strategic reserves of rare earth metals even as it crimps exports, a new piece of counter-China legislation on rare earths introduced to the U.S. Congress reflects the depths of Washington’s anxiety over the sector.

An association of U.S. magnet makers that supports Mr. Coffman’s issued a statement on Wednesday defending a stockpile: “The bill reconfigures the Defense National Stockpile into an interactive strategic reserve to meet national security needs for neodymium magnets and potentially other rare earths products, breaking China’s current stranglehold on the supply chain by giving industry the tools necessary to provide a reliable strategic reserve of neo alloys and magnets on an accelerated timeline.”

Other congressional efforts touch on how to counter China’s dominance in rare earths, but don’t take stands on stockpiling.

Whether there is a stockpile or not, Washington is getting closer to an industry that has until recently been all about China. The primary U.S. rare earth miner Molycorp Inc. recently announced it plans to team with the Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratories to look at new ways to make rare earth magnets.