The Trump administration plans to deploy nearly $12 billion to create a strategic reserve of rare earth elements, a stockpile that could counter China's ability to use its dominance of these hard to process metals as leverage in trade talks. China represents about 70% of the world's rare earths mining and 90% of global rare earths processing. The State Department said in its statement announcing the meeting that the gathering “will create momentum for collaboration” among the participants to secure access to rare earths. The U.S. government has previously taken stakes in the rare earths miner MP Materials, as well as providing financial backing to the companies Vulcan Elements and USA Rare Earth. Bloomberg News was the first to report the creation of the rare earths strategic reserve.

Source: The Hindu February 03, 2026 13:22 UTC