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. They include rare earths, lithium, uranium and copper as “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.”
Equipment manufacturers including GE Vernova, Western Digital and Boeing have expressed interest, said EXIM Bank Chairman John Jovanovic in a statement Monday. General Motors CEO Mary Barra attended the White House event that unveiled the stockpile.
“Having a resilient supply chain is critical for our nation, and it’s critical for all industry, especially the auto industry,” Barra said at the White House. Beyond autos, critical minerals are key inputs for the defense, robotics, semiconductor, electronics and energy industries.
The stockpile is the latest move by the Trump administration to build a Western supply chain to counter China’s dominance in critical minerals – especially when it comes to refining. Beijing sought to cut off exports of rare earths, a subset of critical minerals, last year during trade disputes with the U.S.
The U.S. stockpile will source the minerals at home and abroad, Jovanovic told CNBC in an interview Tuesday. “We have a network of warehouse facilities in which it’s going to be stored in the United States,” he said.
The EXIM Bank is talking to companies who want to leverage the reserve to bring their projects to a financial close and commercial operations date, Jovanovic said.
The stockpile is part of a broader Trump administration strategy. It has also taken equity stakes in several mining companies in an effort to bolster them against state-backed competition in China.
The Pentagon inked a landmark deal last July with rare earth miner MP Materials that included an equity stake, price floor and offtake agreement. The Commerce Department last week announced plans to finance the startup critical mineral company USA Rare Earth in exchange for an ownership stake, subject to certain closing conditions. The administration has also taken stakes in Lithium Americas and Trilogy Metals.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said last April that the U.S. is also considering a sovereign risk insurance fund that would protect companies’ investments in mining projects from cancellation by future U.S. administrations.
“Those three things would put us in the game around critical minerals — the stockpiling, the sovereign risk insurance and the ability to take an equity position. We’re working on all three of those,” Burgum said at a conference in Oklahoma City last year.
