There are plenty of Rare Earth mines in the US but they are "Polluted" with Thorium.
In China, they would process the Rare Earth minerals and stockpile the Thorium on the side until they could find a use for it. In the US, that is illegal.
Now China is thinking about using the stockpile of Thorium in LFTR reactors. And guess what, LFTR reactors are illegal too because they are considered "Breeder Reactors".
So why is all this stuff still illegal in the US? The Old-School Nuke industry wants to keep their Dyno-Reactors until they blow up, Literally. It's WAAAY too profitable to be the sole-source for solid reactor fuel.