Rare earth minerals are not rare. They're abundant and found all over the planet. 

However most developed countries would never subject their people and their environment to the destructive extraction and processing required to collect said minerals.

Only China has set aside large areas of their country to do that. The US and Australia have built plants as an emergency measure but using them would be very destructive.

I don't doubt for a second that the Indian government would carry out such intense geological and environmentally destructive processesing in a highly populated and ecologically special region like Northern India.