It is unlikely for the U.S. to be completely independent of China's rare earth metals in 10 years, as experts estimate it will take at least a decade or longer to break China's dominance, due to the long timelines for building new mines and processing facilities. While the U.S. is making investments and efforts to diversify supply chains and boost domestic production, particularly in refining, the scale and complexity of the challenge mean that dependence will likely continue for some time.