Buried in large, underground salt caverns along Texas and Louisiana’s coast, the world’s largest supply of emergency crude oil has been an invaluable resource for the U.S. For five decades, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has helped the U.S. government conduct foreign policy and calm markets and prices at the pump in the event of supply disruption. Such is the SPR’s importance that the Trump administration is set to build another reserve of that ilk, this time to stockpile a resource some analysts and politicians have referred to as the new oil and gas: rare earths.
President Donald Trump is planning a critical minerals stockpile known as Project Vault, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing senior administration officials. The plan will combine a $10 billion loan from the U.S. Import-Export Bank with $1.67 billion in private capital, according to the report. A White House spokesperson confirmed to Fortune that the plan existed.
