Rare Earths: Is Africa an Alternative to China?

Business Africa posted on 6 June 2019 a five minute podcast titled "Rare Earths: Africa, an Alternative to China?".

China currently produces 71 percent of the world's production of rare earths and has threatened to withhold exports to the United States as a result of the trade war. The only producing mine in Africa today is located in Burundi, with a production of 1,000 metric tons as compared to first place China's 120,000 metric tons and third place United States' 15,000 metric tons. But there are unexploited reserves of rare earths in Kenya, Gabon, Madagascar, Malawi, Tanzania, and Namibia. Can these reserves be exploited in an environmentally sound way to make Africa a major supplier of rare earths?