That it might be, but the only concern is Chinese, their economic and geopolitical policy dominate everything. Hence they would go to any extent to grab hold of any minerals which can help them, same goes for US. If Russia in the current war manages to win, they will be pretty depleted and then US will swoop in. It's not about scarce, it's about backups. Further latin america and Africa, the two places where Chinese are making hyper progress. Even if we manage from them we still be sailing via Bab El Mandeb to arrive at our coast and to protect such assets we need to be a true blue naval power which we aren't and neither have a solid foreign base to fend of such intentions.