Truthfully it's neither fair nor unfair, it's academic. These minerals are not actually rare, they're ubiquitous, but they're energetically and environmentally unfavorable to exploit. China does it because of their um... unique economic system, and lack of eff's to give about the environmental consequences. Everyone else would have to pay a fortune in energy costs and another fortune mitigating environmental effects, which makes them economically unfavorable to exploit.

For Norway, just like Wyoming and a dozen other places this same story has played out, this changes nothing.