Rare earth minerals have been much in the topics of discussion lately. They are vital in almost everything that makes our comfortable, technological lifestyle possible - and we are getting too many of them from China and Russia. The Trump administration has been making moves to exploit our domestic resources, not the least of which are right here in Alaska, as well as setting the United States' sights on places like Greenland.
Now, the Trump administration has announced something called Project Vault, which will be a national critical minerals stockpile, sort of a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but for minerals.
President Donald Trump is set to launch a strategic critical-minerals stockpile with $12 billion in seed money, a bid to insulate manufacturers from supply shocks as the US works to slash its reliance on Chinese rare earths and other metals.
The venture — dubbed Project Vault — is set to marry $1.67 billion in private capital with a $10 billion loan from the US Export-Import Bank to procure and store the minerals for automakers, tech firms, and other manufacturers.
It seems the main justification for a project like this would be national security, not necessarily private enterprise. The two can, however, overlap, sometimes a great deal - as in jet engines.
The effort is akin to the nation’s existing emergency oil stockpile. But instead of crude, its focus would be minerals — such as gallium and cobalt — used in products such as iPhones, batteries and jet engines. The stockpile is expected to include both rare earths and critical minerals as well as other strategically important elements that are subject to volatile prices.
It's not the worst idea to ever have come out of the White House.
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Project Vault, from these initial reports, is a venture that will involve not only Washington but the very companies that would be most hurt by a shortage of critical minerals. And that makes up quite a list; these are the companies that have already signed on:
The project has participation from more than a dozen companies so far, including General Motors Co., Stellantis NV, Boeing Co., Corning Inc., GE Vernova Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google. Three commodities trading houses — Hartree Partners LP, Traxys North America LLC and Mercuria Energy Group Ltd. — have signed on to handle purchases of the raw materials to fill the stockpile.
Ex-Im’s board is set to vote later Monday to authorize the record-setting 15-year loan, which is more than double the next-largest deal ever executed by the bank.
I'd prefer to see this all aimed at national security issues; there may come a day when missile seeker heads or semi-autonomous drones are far more vital to national survival than smartphones and laptops. But involving the tech sector on this, with the guarantee of a supply of critical minerals if the usual sources (China) are cut off, that may be one way to get this done without the American taxpayers picking up the entire tab.
Rare earth elements and other strategic minerals are of vital importance to our lifestyle, to our health (many medical devices and machines require these minerals in their manufacture), and to our national security. Having a good supply stockpiled is probably a smart move.
https://redstate.com/wardclark/2026/02/02/project-vault-trumps-new-12-billion-plan-to-shield-us-from-china-mineral-dominance-n2198746
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