US builds alliances for minerals

US President Donald Trump has just unveiled “Project Vault”, a US$12 billion (374.8 billion baht) critical minerals stockpile intended to cushion US manufacturers from supply disruption.

- Andy Home

This photo, dated Oct 16, 2013, shows an ingot of neodymium and praseodymium, two rare earth metals.

(NYT)

But to fill the Vault with the 60 minerals currently classified as critical, the US realises it is going to need a lot of help.

Friend-shoring is back with a vengeance as the US seeks to build a metallic alliance to loosen China's chokehold on the metals that sit at the heart of modern technology.

Indeed, the US has more friends than ever.

Fifty-four countries were represented at the Feb 4 ministerial meeting on critical minerals in Washington. Eleven new bilateral deals and a trilateral agreement with the European Union and Japan were signed.

The multilateral outreach is a stark contrast to Mr Trump's recent unilateral rhetoric, but to quote US Vice President JD Vance, when it comes to critical minerals, “we're all on the same team”.

China's export restrictions on a growing number of arcane but critical metals such as gallium, germanium and rare earths have added a sense of urgency to US mineral policy.

Funding a new stockpile is the easy part. Securing the desired amount of metal is much harder, particularly if China is the dominant global supplier.

One solution is to invest in the mines themselves, using off-take deals to lock in future supply of raw materials.

It's even better if the mines are already in production.