A major U.S. steelmaker is looking to help kickstart domestic production of rare earth minerals amid China's move to block access amid its trade dispute with the Trump administration.

Cleveland-Cliffs, a steelmaker headquartered in Ohio, announced the rare earths plan on the company's quarterly earnings call on Monday.

"Beyond steelmaking, the renewed importance of rare earths has driven us to re-focus on this potential opportunity at our upstream mining assets," said Cleveland-Cliffs' CEO Lourenco Goncalves on the earnings call. "It is our obligation to do so as a company with our geological footprint."

"We have looked at all of our ore bodies and tailings basins, and two sites in particular, one in Michigan and one in Minnesota, show the most potential. At these two sites, g

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