- The United States has announced a Project Vault stockpile.
- Designed for industry, it will store rare earths and critical minerals.
- The move comes after China cut off access to rare earths last year.
President Trump has signed an executive order establishing Project Vault. It’s being billed as the critical materials equivalent of the strategic petroleum reserve.
Designed to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by shortages of critical materials, the stockpile will be established by a $12 billion investment. It’s focused on rare earths and critical minerals, which have been dominated by China.
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Things came to a head last year when China imposed export restrictions on rare earth elements in April. This forced a number of automakers and suppliers to scramble and some even had to temporarily stop production.
While the situation has improved significantly since those dire days, the United States has apparently decided they can’t depend on China.
The White House hasn’t released the wording of the executive order, as of this writing, but President Trump said $10 billion of funding will come from export-import bank financing, while another $2 billion will come from the private sector. He also claimed taxpayers could end up making a profit on the loan interest.
The president added the government is working to streamline the permitting process for mines and is signing major critical mineral deals with countries from all over the world.
GM CEO Mary Barra was on hand for the signing and Trump said she’s doing a “fantastic job.” Barra returned the compliment and said, “Having a resilient supply chain is critical for our nation and it’s critical for all industry, especially the auto industry.”
Things then got a little awkward as one of the attendees claimed that if Trump hadn’t been elected, the “auto industry in America would be over.” He also slammed Democrats and their electric vehicle ‘mandates,’ which is a bit ironic for a signing event that will presumably benefit EVs.
Update: The Export-Import Bank of the United States released new details about the “supply chain security initiative” that establishes a Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve. It will be an independently governed public‑private partnership, which will store essential raw materials in facilities across the United States.
Specifics are few and far between, but the bank said the move advances “U.S. economic and national security objectives by reducing dependence on foreign‑controlled supply chains, strengthening the domestic industrial base, and ensuring uninterrupted access to materials essential for advanced manufacturing and critical technologies.”