Two things to know about that story:

1)  In the current environment, it's hard to compete against China-owned supplies because their government subsidizes them, and

2)  For others to compete against China-owned supplies, cheaper processing will be required, and then those processes will have to be kept out of the hands of China-owned miners. 

In the meantime, there is little market for rare earths as a by-product, say from copper mining, because the only processor in the Southwest struggles against pricing from China.