North America's rare earth mining boom: Extractive colonialism vs. circular economy futures
Original framing: “Can North America mine enough rare earth elements?” — Phys.org
Indigenous scholars and land defenders argue that 'rare earth abundance' is a colonial fiction masking the theft of sacred lands and water sources. The study's focus on 'deposits' ignores the epistemological violence of quantifying land as extractable resources, as seen in the Diné (Navajo) resistance to uranium mining. Traditional knowledge systems treat rare earths as part of sacred geologies, not commodities—e.g., the Hopi view of minerals as living entities requiring consent for extraction.
The University of Michigan study's framing of rare earth 'abundance' in North America is a symptom of extractive capitalism's ability to rebrand colonialism as 'green growth.
' Indigenous land defenders, frontline communities, and Global South nations have long exposed this myth—from the Diné resistance to Thacker Pass to Congolese cobalt miners—but their knowledge is systematically excluded from policymaking. The solution lies not in expanding supply chains but in dismantling them: circular economy mandates must be paired with Land Back policies, degrowth principles, and global redistribution to break the cycle of extraction. Historical precedents like Japan's recycling programs and Bolivia's cooperative mining show that systemic alternatives exist, but they require confronting the power of mining corporations and the techno-utopian narratives that serve them. The trickster's laughter reminds us that the 'rare earth boom' is a fragile illusion—one that collapses when faced with ecological limits and Indigenous sovereignty.