The United States has stepped up efforts to secure independent supply chains for critical minerals with the launch of Project Vault, a new initiative designed to establish a US Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve and reduce reliance on China. The project, formally approved on February 2 by the Export-Import Bank of the United States, is backed by up to $10 billion in long-term public financing and an additional $2 billion in expected private-sector participation.
Project Vault will operate as a public-private stockpile, creating reserves of essential minerals and metals used in aerospace, defence, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. Planned storage sites across the United States are intended to buffer domestic industries against global supply shocks, mirroring the role of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in energy markets.
The initiative reflects Washington’s broader strategy to diversify critical mineral supply chains away from China, which currently dominates global mining, refining, and processing capacity for rare earths. US officials have increasingly framed this dominance as a strategic vulnerability, citing past export restrictions imposed by Beijing as evidence of how mineral supply can be used as a geopolitical tool.
While Project Vault focuses on domestic resilience, its success depends on diversified upstream supply. In this context, mineral-rich Central Asia has emerged as a key region in US policy thinking. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan were invited to participate prominently in the 2026 Critical Minerals Summit, underscoring growing US interest in the region as an alternative source of strategic materials.
Central Asia collectively hosts deposits of more than 25 minerals classified as critical by the United States Geological Survey, including rare earth elements, tungsten, antimony, manganese, chromium, and titanium. Despite Kazakhstan’s long-standing role as the world’s largest uranium supplier and the region’s significant reserves, much of Central Asia’s mineral output remains underdeveloped or exported as raw material, primarily to China and Russia.
Washington has signalled a shift from purely diplomatic engagement toward commercially driven cooperation. Alongside the traditional C5+1 framework, the US has increasingly relied on business-focused mechanisms such as the B5+1 platform to connect private capital with Central Asian projects. This approach is supported by US agencies including the US International Development Finance Corporation, the US Trade and Development Agency, and EXIM, all of which are expanding financing and technical support for critical minerals projects in the region.
US officials argue that stockpiling alone cannot resolve supply vulnerabilities without parallel investment in downstream processing and refining capacity, much of which remains concentrated in China. As a result, future cooperation is expected to focus not only on extraction but also on building value-added processing capabilities in partner countries.
Taken together, Project Vault and the intensified engagement with Central Asia mark a decisive shift in US critical minerals policy. Washington now views the region not just as a geopolitical partner, but as a potential long-term contributor to diversified, market-based supply chains that underpin US economic and national security.
