Project Vault: Strategic Reserve is Next Step in U.S. Shift to Self‑Reliance in Critical Minerals
In trying to intimidate U.S. manufacturers, China may have instead accelerated a permanent re‑wiring of global minerals flows.
Chinese officials are going to regret ever making their attempts to limit supplies of rare earths and critical minerals to the U.S. as a geopolitical weapon against our country.
With the launch of Project Vault, President Donald Trump has signaled that the U.S. is done tolerating chokepoints controlled from Beijing and is willing to spend billions to harden its supply chains.
The Trump administration’s new minerals stockpile initiative — dubbed “Project Vault” — can include anything identified as “critical” by the U.S. Geological Survey, a White House official told CNBC Tuesday.
The agency, part of the Interior Department, lists more than 50 minerals as critical. These include rare earths, lithium, uranium and copper and are deemed “essential for national security, economic stability and supply chain resilience.” The minerals are crucial because they “underpin key industries, drive technological innovation, and support critical infrastructure vital for a modern American economy,” according to USGS.
President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled “Project Vault,” which is a first-of-its-kind public-private partnership. The U.S. Export-Import Bank will provide $10 billion in the form of a loan, with about $2 billion coming from private capital.
“You’re covering everything with this,” Trump said during an event at the White House on Monday. “We’re not just doing certain minerals and rare earths. We’re doing everything.”
🚨 WATCH: @POTUS announces Project Vault to ensure American businesses and workers are never harmed by shortages of critical minerals.pic.twitter.com/a8z8pMM1pS
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) February 2, 2026
The concept is similar to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (though, hopefully, unlike the SPR, it won’t be raided by some future American president). Representatives of industries impacted by this move underscore its importance to national security.
Project Vault will provide a new mechanism to procure and store strategically important minerals used in batteries and other advanced technologies, such as lead, antimony, cobalt, graphite, silicon, copper, and nickel. Project Vault will help ensure manufacturers have reliable access to key inputs even during periods of volatility or geopolitical pressure.
“Project Vault is exactly the kind of serious, industrial-strength action America needs right now,” said Adam Muellerweiss, President of the Responsible Battery Coalition. “Even two years ago, this idea would have been unthinkable. The Trump Administration has made this a national security priority, driving multiple agencies to coordinate a whole-of-government approach and engaging the private sector to make this possible. This is a generational investment in American dominance and critical mineral independence.”
According to the White House, Project Vault will launch with $12 billion in seed funding to help insulate manufacturers from supply shocks and destabilizing price swings. The program will create a strategic backstop similar in concept to the nation’s emergency petroleum reserves.
The project will establish the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve and is another element in the aggressive acceleration of American mining and processing capabilities related to critical minerals and rare earths.
The Export-Import Bank said in a statement that it will be a public-private partnership that will store essential raw materials in facilities across the U.S.
Mr. Trump has made the global hunt for critical minerals a priority, striking deals with Ukraine and Australia to access their resources and pursuing Greenland, which is rich with natural resources, as the United States looks to secure its stockpiles. The deals include joint projects that would give the United States access to foreign minerals supplies. The United States has also been taking stakes in American rare earths companies as a way to compete more effectively with China
China mines 70 percent of the world’s rare earths, and does chemical processing for 90 percent of the global supply. When the Trump administration recently imposed high tariffs and more expansive technology controls, the Chinese government responded by rolling out a licensing system that would give it control over rare earths shipments even outside China.
USA: Locking Critical Minerals in the Vault 🔐🧵
The U.S launched Project Vault, a $12B Critical Minerals Reserve. Here’s how the $12B vault works, how it ties in with the $MP Materials stake & the price the U.S. is willing to pay to become independent from China. #RareEarths pic.twitter.com/VZMnhmOsHH
— Duane Hope (@DuaneHope5) February 2, 2026
What began as a quiet dependence on Chinese processing capacity has now triggered a full‑scale strategic response, one that aims to build a domestic and allied stockpile capable of insulating American industry from coercion. In trying to intimidate U.S. manufacturers, China may have instead accelerated a permanent re‑wiring of global minerals flows…away from its grip and toward a more resilient American‑led network.
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Comments
That’s the kind of America strengthening action I expect from PRESIDENT Trump.
Now he has to make sure there is some mechanism(s) to prevent a future Demsocialist (God forbid) from giving it all to China. Something ironclad or at least insanely difficult to circumvent.
I mean, look what the Biden autopen did the the National Petroleum Reserve…and the border, and the law, and the economy etc., etc.
This is a good move and in some respects Trump is ahead of the curve on a reinvigorated priority of critical resource acquisition/control and just as important denial to strategic competitors. China has been doing this for some time while the corporatist/globalist goons pretended not to notice or if forced to notice pretend not to understand the larger strategic implications b/c that would upset their crony capitalist gravy train.
I believe that mechanism involves deporting every single illegal alien currently in America.
Common sense! Waiting for rare earth minerals stocks to prove it.
There are plenty of rare earth minerals available in the US. The limiting factor is refining. Traditionally, RE’s are refined by dissolving and precipitating them in over 100 different acid bath steps. Environmentally, this is a hard pill to swallow in the USA.
Luckily, there are new refining processes that will avoid the worst of these old environmental issues.
dig baby dig!
of course the dnc unionists will then want mo of our money and the dems,,if there are still (unrigged) elections at that time,, will break us agian and /or come up with more insidious climate change issues and we will flounder
stop the welfare state now
The problem in the US isnt money. Its absurd environmental reviews and endless litigation to save blind shrimp in puddles (ahem, tidal waters lol). Time is money, and uncertainty increases time and therefore costs money. If the review can be litigated until the next administration…well it just might even be canceled.
California is prima facie exhibit A for this.
Subsidied loans can compensate for the problem; but the solution to socialism is not more socialism.
Long term, we need to make the process of mining cheaper by radically descaling regulations.
I’d bet China funds a lot of the environmental groups because it benefits them. We need to get PRC out of US politics.
At one time, the USA had huge strategic reserves of various metals including tin, silver, copper, nickel, aluminum, zinc, platinum, lead and others. It inexplicably sold them all for no reason other than pitiful gain to spend on welfare. The last to go, over the objections of many congressmen, mostly Republicans was the silver. In that silver serves as the monetary reserves of a number of countries including Canada , Mexico, Australia, Poland and Peru the sale of the government reserves made absolutely no sense .
This sale, btw, preceded the current practice of minted coinage for US citizens to purchase for bullion. The silver for current mintage is purchased for ongoing minting, much as it was historically. Likewise gold and platinum.