But again, going by your logic, that number (if true) is only true because Chinese labor is relatively cheap to other places that might have those metals -- like New Hampshire. New Hampshire had a good bit of active mines before it got wildly uncompetitive with Asian sources.

Aside: I went to one of those mines once -- it got turned into a sort of mine-your-own-rocks park. It was mildly interesting; we couldn't really mine our own though, and it wasn't allowed. (that wasn't on the brochure!) We were only allowed to take the rocks that had been left after the owners had done some explosions and ferreted out the most valuable rocks.