US President Donald Trump has decided to create a strategic reserve of critical minerals, allocating an initial budget of $12 billion for this purpose. The new venture, dubbed "Project Vault," will seek to purchase and store minerals essential for automakers, technology companies, and other enterprises. Essentially, it will function as a strategic petroleum reserve, but for mineral resources. The primary goal of the initiative is to shield American producers from supply disruptions and reduce their reliance on Chinese imports, focusing specifically on critical elements such as gallium and cobalt.

The announcement of these plans has elicited a positive reaction in stock markets, with shares of US companies involved in rare earth mining seeing a sharp uptick. This reflects investor expectations of increased domestic demand for mineral resources, bolstered by governmental support.

The United States already has a national reserve of critical minerals to meet the needs of the defense sector. However, it lacks a reserve for civilian use. Project Vault aims to address this gap. The White House administration has already signed cooperation agreements with Australia, Japan, Malaysia, and other countries for the supply and accumulation of critical minerals. In November, meanwhile, China assured Germany that supplies of critical raw materials and rare earth elements would remain stable, highlighting the escalating competition for control over global supply chains of strategic resources.