The US should focus on leapfrogging China's chokehold on critical minerals through innovative technologies like material engineering and biotech rather than trying to out-mine or outspend them.

“So the I mean, the report itself is on how well we put all of the emphasis on, on mining, on the extraction coming up with the processing and the, the end products, for example, magnets. The the thing is, we can't actually out mine out process and outspend China.”