Vault Project Targets Emergency Minerals Stockpile With Up to $10 Billion in Funding
Key Facts
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the launch of the Vault project on 2 February 2026 to establish a strategic U.S. reserve of critical minerals, in a move aimed at protecting domestic manufacturers from supply shocks. The U.S. Export-Import Bank’s board approved a direct loan of up to $10 billion for the project, according to a bank statement. Bloomberg estimated the accompanying private capital at about $1.67 billion. Reuters said the project aims to provide supplies sufficient for 60 days of emergency use, and that stockpiling had begun when it was announced. The project places the effort in the context of strengthening the availability of raw materials on which U.S. industries rely.
The plan is based on an independently governed public-private partnership that stores essential raw materials in facilities distributed across the United States, according to an EXIM statement. The bank’s president said the initiative was designed to protect domestic manufacturers from supply shocks and support domestic production and processing of critical raw materials. The distributed storage model gives the project a role beyond announcing funding, linking the reserve to usable supplies through facilities across the country. The official transcript of the launch remarks said the reserve is intended for civilian use in emergencies, and that Trump described the private-sector contribution as $2 billion. Bloomberg’s estimate of private capital, however, was about $1.67 billion at the announcement.
EXIM’s initial list of participating manufacturers included Clarios, GE Vernova, Western Digital and Boeing, while Hartree Partners, Mercuria Americas and Traxys were named as suppliers to the project. Reuters said Hartree Partners, Traxys North America and Mercuria Energy Group would manage purchases of raw materials for the stockpile. These roles show the link between industrial companies that may use the materials and trading firms responsible for sourcing them. The Center for Strategic and International Studies said the project aims to stockpile the 60 critical minerals on the U.S. Geological Survey’s 2025 list for civilian industries. In the official transcript, the EXIM president said the project’s criteria cover the full list of critical minerals, clarifying that the focus is on critical raw materials.
The initiative comes in a market where important stages of the rare-earth minerals supply chain are concentrated in China. The Associated Press said China accounts for about 70% of global mining of these minerals and 90% of their processing. This concentration highlights the importance of securing supplies and processing stages, two areas the EXIM president cited among the project’s goals. On the day of the announcement, shares of rare-earth and critical-minerals companies, including MP Materials and USA Rare Earth, rose after media reports that an announcement was imminent, according to Reuters. Coverage of the launch linked the project to efforts to reduce exposure to disruptions in mineral supplies.
In a later development, Glencore and Mercuria joined VaultCo on 23 September 2026 as its first participants, jointly committing $1 billion to buy and store critical minerals, according to CSIS. The center said EXIM financing would help the two companies source, purchase and deliver minerals to the reserve, moving the project toward building an actual supply chain. In April, EXIM President John Jovanovic said the project was designed to address a shortage of capital and a lack of large, creditworthy counterparties. He added that the system would accommodate raw and processed materials, allowing raw ore to be taken out and sent to a processing facility, then returned after refining. He also said additional suppliers had signed on, and that every leading supplier serving manufacturers in the United States had discussed joining.
Jovanovic warned in April that U.S. warehouse inventories and customs storage facilities might be insufficient, saying: "We may not have sufficient customs inventories, warehouses and storage facilities in the United States." He said the presence of a creditworthy entity and guaranteed demand could encourage the creation of additional storage capacity. A CSIS analysis published in September said the project’s value would increase as manufacturer participation broadened to include smaller companies within U.S. supply chains, while providing clearer visibility into demand. This reflects two implementation challenges related to the availability of storage infrastructure and the breadth of the participant base. The 60-day supply target remains an emergency stockpile benchmark as reported by Reuters, not a deadline for completing the initiative.