The Wall Street Journal reports that Ionic Mineral Technologies (Ionic MT) has recently uncovered what may be one of the most significant critical-mineral reserves in the United States while mining clay at Utah’s Silicon Ridge.

Originally leasing the land to produce nanosilicon for lithium-ion batteries, the company unexpectedly identified high-grade concentrations of 16 critical minerals, including lithium, alumina, germanium, rubidium, cesium, vanadium, niobium, and scandium. Independent testing confirmed the deposit is a halloysite-hosted ion-adsorption clay, similar to geological formations in China that supply a major share of global rare-earth output.

Because the deposit is shallow, accessible, and located on pre-permitted land with extensive infrastructure, Ionic MT says extraction could begin quickly. CEO Andre Zeitoun argues the find has far-reaching implications for national security, as these minerals are indispensable for advanced semiconductors, electric vehicles, fighter jets, and artificial-intelligence hardware.

The discovery comes amid heavy geopolitical tension over China’s control of critical mineral markets. China produces roughly 70% of the world’s rare earths and processes about 90%, giving it enormous leverage over global supply chains. Recent Chinese export restrictions have alarmed American industry and policymakers, though a temporary one-year delay won through recent trade negotiations offers a short window for the United States and allies to expand production and processing capacity.

It is this strategic vulnerability that has galvanized Marco Rubio’s leadership on the issue. In July 2024, in another move to counter Communist China, Rubio introduced the Critical Mineral Supply Chain Realignment Act of 2024. imposing aggressive, escalating tariffs on Chinese-controlled electromagnets, permanent magnets, batteries, solar components, and other key technologies. Tariffs would reach 800% on Chinese goods, while non-allied nations would face 25% duties, all designed to push supply chains toward American and allied producers.

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Rubio argued that the United States must break China’s “critical mineral industrial monopoly,” warning that Beijing’s near-total control of end-to-end supply chains — mining, refining, and magnet production — posed economic and national-security dangers.

Rubio has also spearheaded bipartisan pressure — partnering with Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) and others — urging the White House and the Export-Import Bank to prioritize financing for domestic and allied processing, refining, and metallurgical capacity. Their joint letters emphasized that demand for critical minerals was soaring while the United States remained dangerously dependent on China, which often controls “nearly 100%” of the entire supply chains. They argued that only rapid investment, coordinated with allies such as Australia, could counter China’s dominance.

Utah’s newly revealed deposit — supported by the state’s already diverse critical-mineral portfolio — represents not just an industrial opportunity but a strategic asset. State leaders echo Rubio’s warnings: securing reliable domestic sources of these minerals is essential for U.S. energy independence, defense needs, and long-term technological competitiveness.

Taxpayers in Pennsylvania continue to pay for transgender procedures on children despite actions from the Trump administration to protect them from the life-altering procedures, according to government data shared with The Daily Wire. 

Pennsylvania funding for the procedures has continued to surge, even with President Donald Trump’s executive actions to cut funding for entities that promote the procedures on kids. From January to September 18, 2025, Pennsylvania has shelled out nearly $3 million in funding for the procedures, according to data obtained by the Pennsylvania Family Institute. 

The spending numbers come from “Right to Know” requests filed with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services by Dan Bartkowiak, the chief strategy officer at the Pennsylvania Family Institute. He said that there should be a drop in funding due to the Trump administration’s actions. 

“So are other entities doing this? 
Will we see the drop?” he said. “The assumption would be, it’s going to be less than last year’s total.” 

In 2015, Pennsylvania’s spending on “sex reassignment and transition-related services and drugs” for children and young adults surged from $74,000 per year to over $5 million in 2024. In total, the commonwealth has spent over $31 million on transgender procedures on 6,229 patients between the ages of 5 and 18 since 2015.

Despite increasing backlash from lawmakers and parents about the dangers of the procedures, the spending hasn’t appeared to slow down.

How young were the patients? According to the data, there were 133 children last year between the ages of 6 and 12 who received transgender procedures. 

PA Family Institute.

One of the hospitals that has performed transgender procedures on kids, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, is currently fighting the Trump administration’s efforts to gain data on the use of puberty blockers. They sued to block the Justice Department’s efforts to investigate the hospital. 

From January until September 18, $2,925,736 in Pennsylvania Medical Assistance has gone toward the procedures through the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), fee-for-service claims, physical health paid encounters, and behavioral health paid encounters, according to the data. 

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Bartkowiak flagged the increasing amount of CHIP funds going toward the procedures, rising from just over $15,000 in 2015 to over $1,114,367 in 2024. Already over $487,00 in CHIP funding has been spent on the procedures. CHIP is Pennsylvania’s program for uninsured kids and teenagers who aren’t eligible for Medicaid. 

The Pennsylvania Department of Health and Human Services told The Daily Wire that it is “required to follow all applicable federal and state Medicaid rules and covers services related to gender transition that otherwise fall within a beneficiary’s scope of covered Medicaid benefits, such as physician’s services, inpatient and outpatient hospital services, behavioral health services, and prescribed drugs when medically necessary.”

It added that relies on the guidance from the radical World Professional Association for Transgender Health “in determining medical necessity for gender-affirming health care services.”

Senator Judy Ward, a Pennsylvania Republican, is attempting to stop taxpayer funding of the procedures and protect kids from gender surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers. In June, she introduced the “Do No Harm Act” to shield kids from the procedures. 

“It’s just a horrible, horrible thing, and we’re doing it to children,” Ward told The Daily Wire of the transgender procedures. “It is child abuse [in] every sense of the word.”

Ward did not believe that Democrat Governor Josh Shapiro would sign the legislation if it passed the Republican-controlled Senate and managed to get across the finish line in the Democrat-run House. Under Shapiro, $14 million has been spent on the procedures. Shapiro did not respond to a request for whether he would sign Ward’s legislation. 

She said that more awareness is needed to make Pennsylvanians aware of where their hard-earned money is going.

As a registered nurse, Ward said that health professionals were supposed to help people, not push them into experimental treatments. 

“We are to help people to heal and to be the best person that they can be physically, mentally, spiritually, even, and in doing this sort of care is not helping people,” she said. “I think it’s taking advantage of someone who is confused.”