Trump’s $12B rare earth plan targets China as experts warn US is ‘one crisis away’
EXCLUSIVE: Industry experts warn the United States is "one crisis away" from losing access to the rare earth elements that power everything from fighter jets to electric vehicles — a...
By Fox News · Fox News
EXCLUSIVE: Industry experts warn the United States is "one crisis away" from losing access to the rare earth elements that power everything from fighter jets to electric vehicles — a vulnerability President Donald Trump’s new $12 billion "Project Vault" aims to address. The initiative, backed by $1.67 billion in private seed money and a $10 billion loan from the Export-Import Bank, would create a federally supported stockpile of rare earth elements and other critical minerals. The U.S. currently imports much of those materials from China. Executives from Graphite One, one of the country’s largest critical mineral developers, told Fox News Digital the effort could mark a turning point in the battle over China’s dominance of global supply chains. "The Chinese are willing to weaponize access to … semiconductor materials like gallium and uranium," Graphite One advisor Dan McGroarty said. "Then they turn off the tap and sort things out, give us a one-year reprieve, you know, it’s a leash and they can yank that leash anytime they want." TRUMP SAYS 'YOU’LL SEE' WHEN ASKED HOW FAR HE’LL GO ON GREENLAND TAKEOVER CEO Anthony Huston compared the concept to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, established after the 1970s oil crisis to safeguard U.S. energy security, arguing that critical minerals now play a similarly vital role in powering modern defense systems, advanced electronics and electric vehicles. "For years, American businesses have risked running out of critical minerals during market disruptions… Project Vault [will] ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage," Trump said in his announcement last month. Graphite One recently made news with its "truly generational" Graphite Creek site in Alaska, which is the U.S.’ largest asset of that particular critical mineral, in Huston’s words. As of 2024, the U.S. was at least 93% import-dependent on rare earth elements and graphite, according to the International Energy Agency, and remains heavil…