Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Wednesday, July 31st.

Today on Forbes, Chinese investors helped save a strategic U.S. mine and made this American rich.

James Latinsky first visited the Mountain Pass Rare Earth's

mine in 2015 because he was worried about the $40 million

his hedge fund had sunk into distressed bonds issued by mine owner,

Malicorp.

He came away stunned by the enormousness of the site in the mountains above California's Mojave Desert,

and its status is the only U.S. source for certain strategic metals,

including the neodymium used in so-called super magnets

needed for electric vehicles, MRI machines, computer hard drives, and

fighter jets. He says, quote, I was hooked. A few months later, Molly Corp filed for bankruptcy, and Littinsky went on to make a risky play to salvage both the mine and his investors' money.

So what if he knew nothing about mining or complex rare earth's chemistry?

So what if rare earths got their name because they are so difficult to extract and refine?

So what if the mine by the time he got it in 2017 had been mothballed and reduced to a 600-foot deep

pit filled with 30 million gallons of water.

With his Yale degree in economics and a JD in MBA from Northwestern, he was cocky, and confident the numbers were compelling.

China minds and refines 80% of the world's rare earths.

Those numbers give Washington policy makers coal. 80% of the world's rare earths.

Those numbers give Washington policy makers cold sweats,

given the industrial and military importance of the metals.

From the start, Littinsky shrewdly calculated

he could count on federal support if he went into the rare earth's business,

...