In February 2026, the Trump administration launched Project Vault, a $12 billion initiative designed to stockpile critical minerals and rare earth elements to protect American manufacturers and the defense industrial base from supply disruptions. The program received backing from the Export-Import Bank, which provided a $10 billion loan—the largest single financing in the agency’s history—supplemented by approximately $2 billion in private capital from major corporations including General Motors, Boeing, Google, and Stellantis.
However, a fundamental challenge threatens the program’s effectiveness. Raw rare earth materials in their oxide form cannot be directly used by manufacturers. Converting these materials into usable metals and magnets requires metallization processes conducted at extremely high temperatures and precision alloying that demands specialized expertise. Currently, China controls approximately 90% of global rare earth processing capacity and an even larger share of finished magnet production. If Project Vault materials are stored without being processed into usable forms, the stockpile would essentially bypass the supply chain problem rather than solving it, requiring materials to still pass through Chinese processing regardless.
The United States lost its domestic rare earth processing capability over several decades due to economic pressures. Beginning in the 1980s and accelerating through the 1990s, China invested heavily in mining and processing while maintaining minimal environmental controls and low labor costs, making Western operations uncompetitive. The last major U.S. rare earth mine closed in 2002, and the specialized knowledge and equipment required for processing disappeared as facilities shut down and experts retired.
REalloys, a company based in Euclid, Ohio, is developing infrastructure to address this processing gap. The company has established relationships with suppliers across Saskatchewan, Wyoming, Appalachia, Kazakhstan, Brazil, and Greenland while pursuing a partnership with South Korean magnet manufacturer JS Link to develop an integrated supply chain. A new processing facility in Saskatchewan is targeting commercial production in early 2027 using an AI-driven separation system that would require significantly fewer personnel than comparable Chinese operations.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI