The Donald Trump administration is moving to build an oil-reserve-style backstop for the materials that modern industry can’t function without: rare earths and other critical minerals.
The initiative—dubbed “Project Vault”—is framed as a $12 billion push to create a strategic stockpile that can cover roughly 60 days of emergency supply, insulating manufacturers and defense-linked supply chains from sudden disruptions and price spikes.
What’s in the plan
The basic idea is straightforward: buy and store key minerals in advance, so U.S. companies aren’t forced to scramble—or overpay—when supply tightens.
Materials in the mix are described as the core “AI + electrification + defense” inputs: rare earth elements and major critical minerals such as lithium and nickel (and related strategic metals used across batteries, electronics, and weapons systems).
How it’s funded and run
Rather than building a purely government-run reserve, the plan is structured as a hybrid financing and logistics operation:
- $10 billion in financing is tied to the Export-Import Bank of the United States.
- Additional capital comes from private investors to round out the seed pool.
- Procurement and management are slated to be handled by commodities firms including Hartree Partners, Traxys North America, and Mercuria Energy Group.
The pitch: manufacturers get a “break-glass” supply option without having to park inventory on their own balance sheets.
Why this is happening now
The timing isn’t subtle. The strategic rationale is to reduce reliance on China, which has long held outsized leverage across parts of the critical-minerals supply chain—especially processing and downstream components.
In other words, this is less about digging rocks and more about who controls chokepoints when geopolitics turns supply into leverage.
Who’s being courted
The White House is pitching Vault as an industrial shield for sectors that need stable access to materials:
- automakers and battery supply chains
- electronics and AI hardware ecosystems
- defense contractors and aerospace production
Trump is also expected to meet with General Motors CEO Mary Barra and mining executive Robert Friedland as part of the push to line up support and momentum behind the initiative.
The real questions investors and industry will ask next
A stockpile announcement is the easy part. The hard part is whether it becomes a durable policy tool that changes outcomes. The key “make-or-break” questions:
- What exactly will be stockpiled—and in what form? (raw material vs refined product matters.)
- How will access work during shortages? (allocation rules, pricing, priority users.)
- Can this coexist with domestic mining and processing goals without discouraging private investment?
- Will it be sustained across political cycles? (critical-minerals projects are multi-year bets.)
- Does it reduce risk—or just shift it? (storage, quality control, market distortion, and cost.)
Bottom line
Project Vault is a clear signal that the U.S. is treating critical minerals like strategic infrastructure—closer to energy security than normal commodity supply. If executed well, a 60-day buffer could soften shocks and reduce vulnerability during disruptions.
But the long-term impact will hinge on follow-through: what gets stockpiled, how it’s governed, and whether it actually helps the U.S. build reliable non-China supply chains—rather than simply warehousing scarcity.
