Trump launches $12B ‘Project Vault’ for critical minerals stockpile to battle China’s dominance

AOL ^ | 3 Feb 26 | Andrew Feinberg

[delta7]

President Donald Trump has kicked off $12 billion project to stockpile critical minerals used by the defense and technology sectors as a hedge against Chinese dominance of the strategically important industry in what the White House will call “Project Vault.” The public-private effort — first reported by Bloomberg — would use $1.67 billion in private seed funds and combine that cash with another $10 billion from the U.S. government’s Export-Import Bank for the purchase and storage of critical minerals and rare earths such as gallium and cobalt, a key ingredient in rechargeable batteries as well as modern jet engines used by military aircraft.....

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: metals; minerals; mining; silver; strategic

[delta7]

Finally, only one problem.....Silver has been in a five year mining deficit...Above ground stocks are rapidly being depleted.

[delta7]

I will add one thing, thin air Bitcoins and the like aren’t being “ Vaulted”....

Bitcoin now down 32 percent in six months....

https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/BTCUSD/

“Bitcoin (BTCUSD) broke a bearish trend line at $78,400 but remains under $80,000. It faces key resistance at $79,200, with potential declines if this level isn’t surpassed.”

[fluffy]

Dems will sell it all and replace it with an IOU backed by US Treasuries. “It’s just as good, and we funded free needles for homeless people!”

[Tom Tetroxide]

Demand just significantly increased again.

[delta7]

Demand just significantly increased again.

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“Central banks bought 19t of gold in December 2025. Reported purchases for the year as a whole? A total of 328t.”

-World Gold Council

....add to that, five Central Banks are now buying Silver. Think about that!

[Brian Griffin]

Copper conducts almost as well as silver.

The price of silver will be capped by solar panel production factors.

“smaller firm Shanghai Aiko Solar Energy is producing 6.5 gigawatt solar cells without silver”

“starting in Q2, LONGi Green Energy is planning to start mass producing solar cells using base metals instead of silver in an effort to reduce costs”

more information at:
https://investingnews.com/solar-panels-silver-copper/

It will take other companies time to adjust, but they will.

[Brian Griffin]

Gold might be found in asteroids.

Musk’s Space X might bring this gold to Earth.

[Brian Griffin]

Precious metals tend to have significant buying and selling expenses.

[Brian Griffin]

The country is headed towards Donkey Communism and Republicans appear too stupid to stop it.

Retire if you can and spend down your assets insomuch as possible.

Think of yourselves as Jews in 1932 Germany.

Think of yourselves as ‘Whites’ in Bolshevik Russia.

[Flag_This]

” Gold might be found in asteroids. Musk’s Space X might bring this gold to Earth.”

“1986 DA was the first near Earth asteroid thought to be of metallic composition, with high radar brightness; it was predicted to have 100 thousand tons of platinum group metals including gold and suggested as a resource for future space colonists.”

[delta7]

The country is headed towards Donkey Communism and Republicans appear too stupid to stop it.
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To early to tell…..Trump pulled us out of Senile Joes destruction. I expect good things, but we may resume our decline when he leaves…..for the moment, all is good, really good.

[9YearLurker]

Bitcoin at $77,250 right now.

[bgill]

The US should have been ahead of this years ago.

[delta7]

Precious metals tend to have significant buying and selling expenses.

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With gains like these, I would gladly take the 3-5 percent below spot offer. That said, as PMs become more scarce, the premiums tend to go higher....and if in your possession, has absolutely no counter party risk, and deemed by the worlds Central Banks, “ HQLA”....Highest Quality Liquid Asset.

Gold Price Performance USD

Change Amount %

Today +302.77 +6.53%
30 Days +192.73 +4.34%
6 Months +1,260.83 +37.38%
1 Year +1,791.09 +63.00%
5 Year +2,838.83 +158.15%
20 Years +4,066.10 +716.14%
goldprice.org - 10:19 NY Time

[FLT-bird]

Why ON EARTH were we not doing this already?

We should have strategic stockpiles of:

1. Grain and other foodstuffs.

2. Weapons

3. ammo

4. Oil

5. Medicines

6. Metals

7. Rare Earths

8. Critical spare parts

and before anybody says it, yes I am aware some of these things are perishable. The answer is to rotate them. ie release grain that is a year or two old onto the market and stockpile a larger percentage of the current year's harvest. etc.

[delta7]

Musk’s Space X might bring this gold to Earth.

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Right, sure, and the costs required to capture, transport and refine will push the price to astronomical levels.There is still nothing more economical than to run those nasty open pit mines, which are becoming much scarcer.

[NorthMountain]

[delta7]

Maybe Trump starts a campaign to buy back, directly, ( no middle man) citizen’s Silver? Way back when, miners could bring their Gold Silver nuggets, dust, etc to the US Treasury and they would mint and return legal coinage for you - FREE.

This is happening to some extent in China. They are ahead of the game.

The biggest precious metals recycler in China, Rongtong Gold, is now offering Chinese consumers a buy-back price for Silver at the USD equivalent of $96.48 per troy ounce (VAT-exempt), well above the Western spot price levels.

[delta7]

Copper conducts almost as well as silver.

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Sorry, copper corrodes to easily, and using Copper reduces panel efficiency.
“ Almost as well” multiplied by millions of monthly panels will only bring about Copper shortages and reduced panel life. Have you checked the price of copper lately?

https://www.zacks.com/stock/news/2569355/copper-skyrockets-to-new-highs-etfs-to-ride-the-tariff-talks

“Copper Skyrockets to New Highs: ....”

[DIRTYSECRET]

Rats used the SPR for political purposes. Perhaps it should take an act of congress.