China's been doing this for over a year. The main problem is that ramping up a shut down mine takes time. Starting a new one from scratch takes even longer.
If the copper industry is any model, when global demand started greatly outstripping supply last decade, it took about 3 years for the supply side to sort things out and bring new capacity online.
Wasnt someone going on claiming rare earth minerals the reason we went to Afganistan a few weeks back?
Yeah, it was lithium if I remember correctly. Supposedly a trillion dollar supply over there.
Those Red Menace Commie Chinese have really gotten the Free Market figured out to the point where they are manipulating markets like modern day Robber Barons. It sure is a twist from the days when they were supposed to bury us all with Chariman Mao Communism.
stewartm0205
If the other governments of the world had an sense they would try and open their own mines. Or at list work together to find a few alternative sources.