U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks during the Critical Minerals Ministerial at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 4, 2026.
| Photo Credit:
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
U.S. Vice President JD
Vance on Wednesday unveiled plans to marshal allies into a
preferential trade bloc for critical minerals, proposing
coordinated price floors as Washington escalates efforts to
loosen China’s grip on materials crucial to advanced
manufacturing.
The Washington meeting comes after President Donald Trump
on Monday launched a strategic stockpile of critical minerals,
called Project Vault, backed by $10 billion in seed funding from
the U.S. Export-Import Bank and $2 billion in private funding.
China has wielded its chokehold on the processing of many
minerals as geo-economic leverage, at times curbing exports,
suppressing prices and undercutting other countries’ ability to
diversify sources of the materials used to make semiconductors,
electric vehicles and advanced weapons.
“We want to eliminate that problem of people flooding into
our markets with cheap critical minerals to undercut our
domestic manufacturers,” Vance told the gathering of visiting
ministers in Washington without mentioning China.
“We will establish reference prices for critical minerals at
each stage of production, pricing that reflects real-world fair
market value, and for members of the preferential zone, these
reference prices will operate as a floor maintained through
adjustable tariffs to uphold pricing integrity,” Vance said.
Shares of minerals companies fell on the news. MP Materials
lost 2.8%, Critical Metals dropped 7.7%,
NioCorp Developments was down 2.8%, and USA Rare Earths
lost 6.6% in morning trading in New York.
Published on February 4, 2026
