President Donald Trump on Monday launched a $12 billion mineral stockpile to buffer automakers, tech companies and other manufacturers from shortages and shocks as the U.S. reduces its reliance on Beijing.
The president’s new venture, dubbed “Project Vault,” will combine a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, as well as $1.67 billion in private capital. Ex-Im voted early Monday to approve the loan.
Trump announced the effort in the Oval Office alongside Cabinet officials, lawmakers, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Ivanhoe Mines CEO Robert Friedland, and said the project will protect U.S. industry from mineral shortages during market disruptions, a nod to China’s restriction of mineral exports last year. U.S. taxpayers, Trump added, will make a profit from interest on the loan used to start the project.
“For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions,” said Trump. “Today, we’re launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage.”
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the effort is happening with no appropriations and amounts to the “largest Ex-Im bank deal in the history of the [agency] by more than double, and this is going to help drive national security.” Burgum also applauded Trump for creating a minerals “club” with Australia, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Thailand, and said almost a dozen additional members will join this week.
House Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) joined Burgum in thanking Trump for approving the Ambler mining road in Alaska. “We’re bringing back American mining and manufacturing,” said Westerman.
Trump is making the move just days before top administration officials kick off a high-level, inaugural meeting with more than 40 U.S. allies in Washington on Wednesday to discuss the creation of a minerals market with the use of a “pricing” mechanism to counter Beijing.
Creation of a critical mineral stockpile — an idea that’s also been pitched on a bipartisan basis on Capitol Hill — would include both rare earths and critical minerals needed for military and energy equipment, electric vehicles, and more.
The U.S. already maintains a National Defense Stockpile to ensure there are sufficient minerals for defense needs, but the new venture would bolster civilian needs and is poised to include companies like General Motors, Stellantis, Google, Boeing and Corning. A trio of trading houses — Hartree Partners, Traxys North America and Mercuria Energy Group — will handle purchases of raw materials to fill the stockpile. Bloomberg first reported the White House plan.
Trump’s Project Vault will feature prominently at both the ministerial and in public appearances by top administration officials this week. On Tuesday, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Burgum and other top Trump officials will appear at a summit in Washington to discuss partnerships the administration is forging to unlock mineral investments.
The ministerial will also offer a window into Trump’s position ahead of a meeting in April with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and whether his administration can overcome challenges dogging his administration’s efforts — including tariff disputes, political unrest, and concerns about the environmental and local communities.
Diplomats and ministers from Australia, India, Kazakhstan and a host of African nations like the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo are slated to attend the mineral ministerial, which Secretary of State Marco Rubio will host, according to various news reports.
The meeting is part of a broader effort under Trump to rebuff China — the administration is also investing in a growing list of mineral companies, fast-tracking approval of domestic mining projects, and moving to accelerate the permitting of deep-sea mining in U.S. and international waters. The State Department in December also launched the Pax Silica Declaration, and Trump through an executive order has called on his top officials to negotiate mineral trade deals.
The State Department is asking attendees at the ministerial to commit to signing a draft framework agreement ahead of the gathering, POLITICO reported last week. Signatories are being asked to identify and support key projects — within six months — that can deliver material to the U.S. and buyers aligned with the U.S. The document also contemplates tools like price floors to buffer domestic producers from Beijing.
Ruth Perry, principal deputy assistant for oceans, fisheries and polar affairs at the State Department’s Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, said at an industry conference last week that officials from up to 50 countries will attend the event, and that discussions will touch on both land and deep-sea minerals.
“Not all of those countries are in agreement [about] the time and pace the U.S. wants to move, but again we’re facilitating those conversations, building upon those relationships and having those hard dialogues … to help those countries come with us,” said Perry.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Washington, said parties need to follow the principles of “market economy and fair competition,” and jointly keep the global industrial and supply chains stable.
“On keeping the global industrial and supply chains of critical minerals safe and stable, China’s position has not changed. All parties have the responsibility to do so,” Pengyu said when asked about the White House mineral stockpile.
Pitches, challenges
The White House in recent weeks has been vetting a proposal on Capitol Hill to create a mineral stockpile. It’s an idea that’s taken root after China rattled supply chains with export restrictions, unnerving carmakers like Ford.
Republican Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia told POLITICO’s E&E News last month that David Copley, a top official on the National Security Council focused on minerals and supply chains, has assessed his legislation to create a $2.5 billion stockpile. The bill would establish the stockpile as an independent government corporation that would be led by a seven-member board appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
Democratic Sens. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Republican Sens. Todd Young of Indiana and Mike Rounds of South Dakota floated a companion bill.
But efforts to insulate the U.S. and create a new market with allies is occurring amid a slew of geopolitical rifts and spats. Trump set off international fireworks with rhetoric about acquiring Greenland, and has since said his administration is hammering out a deal that includes mineral rights.
Political unrest and violence are also threatening to thwart U.S. efforts.
DRC President Félix Tshisekedi, for example, is slated to attend the State Department ministerial alongside the country’s mining minister and Gécamines Chair Guy-Robert Lukama, according to the Africa Report. The DRC is the world’s top producer of cobalt needed for batteries, military and energy technologies.
Despite Trump signing a peace deal to halt fighting and boost mineral development and U.S. access in the region, Sarah Troutman, deputy assistant secretary for African affairs at the State Department, told the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa last week that violence in the region is intensifying as M23 rebels block United Nations peacekeeping efforts.
Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, the subcommittee’s chairman, said he’s considering “country-specific legislation to help the president get adherence … and these countries … to what they’ve agreed to.”
But Democratic Rep. Sara Jacobs of California, the subcommittee’s ranking member, said the U.S. needs to hold Rwanda accountable, and warned there’s a lack of consultation with civil society and local communities that threatens to undermine the peace deal.
“The president’s statements and promises that he has already ended the war between DRC and Rwanda ring hollow,” said Jacobs. “We are not seeing stability and peace on the ground at all.”
