The Trump administration announced “Project Vault” on February 10, 2026 — a $12 billion initiative to build a strategic reserve of critical minerals essential to national defense and advanced manufacturing.
The program is built around a $10 billion credit line through the Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private investment commitments. It represents the largest U.S. mineral stockpiling effort since World War II, when the National Defense Stockpile was established to ensure wartime access to strategic materials.
Project Vault targets 50 minerals identified as critical by the U.S. Geological Survey, with particular focus on rare earth elements, cobalt, lithium, manganese, graphite, and antimony. The Pentagon has long warned that U.S. dependence on China for these materials — many of which have no viable substitutes in defense applications — represents a serious national security vulnerability.
On March 4, 2026, Reuters reported that the Pentagon had sought fresh supply of 13 critical minerals just one day before escalating tensions in the Middle East, underscoring the urgency of the stockpiling initiative.
The program will fund domestic mining operations, processing facilities, and strategic reserves stored at military installations. It also includes provisions for allied-nation procurement, recognizing that some minerals — such as cobalt from the Democratic Republic of Congo — cannot be sourced domestically at scale.
Defense analysts note that Project Vault addresses a key lesson from recent supply chain disruptions: when China temporarily restricted rare earth exports in 2010, and more recently tightened controls on gallium and germanium in 2023, the U.S. had no meaningful buffer stock to maintain production of advanced weapons systems, satellites, and communications equipment.