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Events/Closure · 2002

Mountain Pass mining stops

Closure, 2002 to 2011, United States.

What happened

Mine production at Mountain Pass, California began in 1952 and was discontinued from 2002 to 2011 because of low rare earth prices and environmental permitting issues, USGS says.1,2

Why it matters

The pause left China with over 90 percent of world rare earth production in the years that followed.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Mountain Pass mining stops

    The pause left China with over 90 percent of world rare earth production in the years that followed.1,2

  2. China cuts rare earth export quota

    USGS says rare earth product prices rose sharply in 2010 after the drop in exports.1,3,4

  3. Lynas starts Mount Weld concentrate production

    Mount Weld was the main new rare earth source outside China after the 2010 export quota cuts.1,5

  4. Molycorp commissions new Mountain Pass operations

    From 2012 to 2015 the US was a leading producer of rare earths outside China.1,2

  5. WTO dispute over China's rare earth export restrictions

    The case tested export controls on critical minerals.6,7

Open the full timeline

Where next

Mines

Located inMountain PassSee the mine behind this story: Mountain Pass.1

Events

Led toChina cuts rare earth export quotaWith Mountain Pass idle from 2002 to 2011, China cut its export quota in 2010.3

Sources

  1. Rare-Earth Elements, Professional Paper 1802-O US Geological Survey
  2. Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine (item Q4285560), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. China's Rare-Earth Industry, OFR 2011-1042 US Geological Survey
  4. Beijing (item Q956), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  5. Mount Weld Mine (item Q1950809), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  6. DS431 China: measures related to the exportation of rare earths, tungsten and molybdenum World Trade Organization
  7. Geneva (item Q71), coordinate location P625 Wikidata

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

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Pictures: Salar de Atacama, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)); Pangkalpinang. Mijn 3b. Een reeks koelies bezig met het transporteeren van grond, Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).