By Ed Ballard

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This week brought a blizzard of news about the Trump administration's drive to counter China's control over raw materials that go into everything from electric-vehicle batteries to jet fighters. The strategy looks increasingly like China's own. Here's what to know.

Stockpiling is back

President Trump unveiled a $12 billion critical-mineral reserve: Project Vault. The aim is to protect manufacturers from shocks like the scramble for rare-earth metals after Beijing curbed exports last year.

Commodities trading houses signed up to provide metal, and companies including Boeing and gas-turbine maker GE Vernova endorsed the project. Companies using the reserve will determine which minerals it stores, choosing from a government list ( 60 options, from aluminum to zirconium), said a spokesman for the U.S. Export-Import Bank. The agency is providing a $10 billion loan, topped up with roughly $1.67 billion of private capital.

Manufacturers would cover storage costs and loan repayments, the spokesman said. In return, they would lock in mineral prices in case of a crisis. Still unclear: who the private-sector investors are, and how to spend $12 billion. Some critical-mineral markets are tiny, while stocking up on bulk commodities like copper and aluminum would require a lot of warehouse space, noted CRU analyst Tom Matthews.

The U.S. military already maintains a mineral reserve, but has been selling it down since the Cold War.

African metal

Canada's Ivanhoe Mines said it was in talks to supply minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo to the new stockpile. The deal would see supplies of zinc concentrate, including germanium and gallium, sent to U.S. markets.

Commodities group Glencore separately said it is in talks to sell a stake in its copper and cobalt assets in Congo to a company backed by the U.S. government. These deals suggest that exports from a country long aligned with China could diversify rapidly, Matthews said.

Deals in the spotlight

There is broad willingness in Washington to reduce China's dominance of critical minerals, but some of this administration's moves are proving controversial.

This week, Democratic lawmakers wrote to administration officials demanding information about the government's equity investments in critical-mineral ventures. They complained about the potential for conflicts of interest, competition risks and minimal information about safeguards for taxpayers.

The deals "represent how we are investing in the long-run success of American technology and manufacturing," White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement. "The safeguarding of America's supply chain cannot be further delayed by more red tape and bureaucracy," he said.

A coalition of the willing (maybe)

Japan, Mexico and the European Union agreed on Wednesday to collaborate with the U.S. to establish new supply chains. The plan involves trade zones with price floors for critical minerals to prevent China from flooding the market to crush competitors.

Talk of collaboration sounds jarring to some as Trump's aggressive foreign policy alienates allies.

"The U.S. now faces a substantial trust-building challenge," said Patrick Schröder of think tank Chatham House. He expects to see more national stockpiles and higher prices.

Trump administration official Jacob Helberg put it differently at an event on Tuesday.

"We're making decisions about who our friends are going to be for the next 25, 40 years," he said.

Tell me what you think: Send your feedback and suggestions to ed.ballard@wsj.com. And if somebody forwarded you this email, you can subscribe here.

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This Week's Top Stories

Solar manufacturers hit by silver rally. The photovoltaic industry uses about as much of the precious metal as jewelers, and rising prices have jacked up costs. Silver prices plunged late last week, but remain more than double their level from a year ago.

The 29-year-old Dell scion seeking to shore up the Texas grid. Zach Dell runs Base Power, a home-battery company that says it is adding over 50 customers a day in markets including Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston. ( Here's a guide to using batteries as backup for when the lights go out.)

A $58 billion shale merger comes at an awkward time. Devon Energy and Coterra Energy are joining forces. The problem is that investors seem to think the shale age has peaked. U.S. drilling isn't tapped out, but the rewards are starting to plateau.

   -- China EV Giant Starts Hungary Trials, Aiming to Bypass EU Tariffs $(IBD)$ 
 
   -- Google Is Spending Big to Build a Lead in the AI Energy Race (WSJ) 
 
   -- Why India Will Struggle to Reduce Its Reliance on Russian Oil (WSJ) 

Podcast

The Climate & Your Money

😍 Our tech columnist drove a Chinese EV for a few weeks and was wowed by its range, interiors and sleek software. She doesn't want to buy American cars anymore.

Enphase shares popped as the solar company said it is benefiting from consumers looking to fend off rising utility rates.

The Data Point

It won't be easy to erode China's lead in critical minerals -- it came out of an industrial strategy that was pursued for decades.

The drive to secure key commodities was tethered to consistent support for low-carbon technology that is sweeping global markets. In the U.S., policies change with elections.

"We're going to work really hard to make sure we do it before we leave office," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said Tuesday of the minerals drive. "We've got three years left."

The chart comes from Fernando Martín of Global Trade Alert, who dug into the contrasting strategies in a recent report.

About Us

WSJ Climate & Energy offers news, analysis and exclusive data focused on the intersection of business, money and climate. You'll find highlights from across Dow Jones, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and Investor's Business Daily, plus data and analysis from OPIS, Chemical Market Analytics and McCloskey.

Today's email was written by Ed Ballard in London. Contact him at ed.ballard@wsj.com. Contact the team at climate@wsj.com.

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February 05, 2026 09:25 ET (14:25 GMT)

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