How Trump’s $12 Billion Stash of Critical Minerals Risks Distorting Markets
The planned Project Vault stockpile aims to ensure supplies of rare earths and other strategic elements, but it could upend markets instead.
Illustration: Antoine Cossé for Bloomberg Businessweek
At a packed Oval Office ceremony in February, President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to build one of the largest strategic stockpiles of critical minerals in history. Dubbed Project Vault, it would hoard dozens of elements—backed by $12 billion in public and private funding—to “ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” Trump said. General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra and Robert Friedland, founder of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., looked on as he signed off on the effort.
From ancient grain reserves to Cold War fuel depots, stockpiles have traditionally been the domain of governments, designed to guard against famine or prepare for war. The White House cast the plan in familiar terms, with Trump likening it to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which was created in the 1970s after an oil embargo to shield the US from supply shocks. But for widely used commodities such as copper, $12 billion wouldn’t be sufficient to insulate the country from a serious disruption, and for more niche minerals, it could be large enough to affect—even distort—markets.