President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 2 a new strategic private sector critical minerals stockpile.
“Project Vault” is being seeded with $1.67 billion in private capital and a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, and it is meant to insulate U.S. industries from market disruptions such as the seismic critical minerals rule change Beijing previewed in 2025.
The Pentagon already has a critical minerals stockpile, kept in six locations across the country, to be used in the event of a national emergency. However, Beijing announced a major rule change in 2025 that would subject all sales of critical minerals mined or processed in China—which could be up to 90 percent of global supply—to review and approval from Chinese authorities.
That would upend the status quo by severely restricting or disrupting the supply chain, and Beijing’s announcement accelerated global efforts to find alternative sources. When Chinese authorities implemented a much smaller-scale version of a critical minerals licensing regime earlier in 2025, it caused supply disruptions, and within weeks, some auto part manufacturers were forced to shut down entire production lines.
After a U.S.–China meeting in October 2025, Beijing agreed to pause its new licensing regime for one year, during which, Trump said, the United States will have found other reliable sources.
“We don’t want to ever go through what we went through a year ago,” Trump said at a press briefing at the Oval Office.
Project Vault is meant to be a key component of that derisking strategy, and it has buy-in from some of the biggest U.S. companies. Participants already include General Motors, Boeing, Corning, Stellantis, and Google.
The venture will allow participating companies continued access to their requested critical minerals at set prices in exchange for paying a stockpile maintenance fee, making an up-front payment on their purchases, and agreeing to continue to buy those materials in future years.
John Yovanovitch, head of the U.S. Export-Import Bank, said the president directed agencies to come up with a solution that did not put the cost burden on taxpayers.
“Manufacturers and workers all across the country can rest assured they’ll have what they need when they need it most,” he said at the Feb. 2 briefing. “And the best part about it is that the American taxpayer will earn a return on financing the first ever strategic critical minerals reserve in history.”
The purchasing of raw materials for the stockpile will be handled by energy commodity trading companies Hartree Partners, Traxys North America, and Mercuria Energy Group.
The set pricing mechanism counters the Chinese regime’s predatory pricing practices that drove global critical minerals miners and processors out of business years ago. Chinese state-subsidized companies have undercut multiple industries over the years by flooding the market with products priced below their competitors’ costs.
Because the companies participating in Project Vault are making long-term purchasing agreements at set prices, the venture would function to establish price floors for the industry that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previewed in 2025.
The project also follows an executive order Trump signed earlier this month directing the U.S. trade representative and commerce secretary to negotiate critical minerals agreements with trading partners on the basis of national security. One of the goals was to secure price floors with trading partners, and the United States would guarantee minimum import prices for critical minerals in exchange.
The United States has secured several international partnerships on critical minerals since the start of the second Trump administration, including with Japan, Australia, and Ukraine. The agreements range from cooperation on research and development to multibillion-dollar investments and pricing safeguards.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said during the briefing that announcements of partnerships with 11 more countries will be forthcoming this week and that 20 more countries are interested in joining.
The State Department announced that it is hosting the first U.S. Critical Minerals Ministerial on Feb. 4 to “create momentum for collaboration to secure these critical components vital to technological innovation, economic strength, and national security.”
Catherine Yang is a reporter for The Epoch Times based in New York.
Reprinted with permission from The Epoch Times by Catherine Yang.
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
I am so grateful that we have DJT in the White House again. God has gifted him with the courage and wisdom needed to lead our nation. I pray for him daily as so many of you do too.
Again Trump is taking the lead. Which you never see from the progressives in this country. They just undermine everything Trump does. This is a brilliant move. And see how many countries are joining in. Plus many businesses. Think about this when you cast your vote in November 2026. Who is protecting this country from China? Who? President Donald J Trump.
Do you thing any radical liberal out there would EVER come up with a plan to keep us safe from China??? NO WAY!! Thank you, Mr. President for making our country and our citizens at the top of your priorities. As others have said, if anyone votes for the radical liberals this year in any election, they are ruining our country’s possibility to have a sane government in charge.
Don’t let Hillary know about it she’ll sell it to Russia. Remember the uranium she sold to Russia?
Are the critical minerals then shipped to China for processing? How are we situated at this time to handle that detail?
Need secure site for use
END the stupid SOLAR PANELS! That would save tons of silver
I thought that the green scam was over!
I would almost bet that the obama/soros/biden past administration is really POd because we now have an administration that is taking care and loves AMERICA.
Truly amazing, how our President leads! So thankful for how this article reads; also informative.
We also need to allow mining of such minerals available on U.S. soil. There is no good reason for the U.S. to be dependent on foreign minerals. We have plenty within U.S. ground that we need to be allowed to mine. The first thing we should do is to take away mineral rights of U.S. mines for foreign interests.
This article does not mention how to handle the processing of critical rare earths to bring that to a usable product. Are processing plants in the works?
Trump is bouncing around like a rubber ball this week. But this is a distraction from Trump wanting to nationalize elections so we better pay attention to where this is headed.