Next to Joshua Tree National Park, a mining company is staking its claim for rare earth minerals

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An Australian company has launched a rare earths mining project just outside Joshua Tree National Park in critical desert tortoise habitat, an area the company’s director refers to as an “emerging heavy rare earth district.”The company, Dateline Resources Ltd., says that historical sampling of the area in the Pinto Mountains south of Twentynine Palms found enrichment in elements key to powering electric vehicles, wind turbines and defense systems.The United States depends heavily on China for its supply of these critical minerals, a major national security vulnerability the Trump administration has sought to address through a series of regulatory changes and financial incentives aimed at shoring up domestic production.The project is in its early stages, and it’s unclear whether further testing will confirm the presence of rare earth elements across a broad enough area to warrant extracting them.The site is roughly 100 miles southwest of the nation’s only fully functional rare earths mine — Mountain Pass operated by MP Materials, in which the U.S.

Department of Defense holds a 15% stake.It’s also steps from Joshua Tree National Park, one of the nation’s most beloved desert getaways where about 3 million people visit annually.The 1,200-square-mile park and the public lands that surround it are home to sensitive plants and wildlife that environmentalists say would be harmed by a major mining project that could deplete water supplies, draw traffic and generate toxic waste.“This is truly one of the most iconic landscapes in America,” said Chance Wilcox, California desert program manager for the National Parks Conservation Assn., as he stood atop a rocky slope within the project footprint on Friday.

Beside him, a wooden stake marked the corner of a mining claim.About 100 feet away, a metal post denoted the park’s boundary.

In the valley below sat the fee booth f...