The Pentagon is moving to secure a $1 billion stockpile of critical minerals. The Department of Defense is aiming to insulate the U.S. defense supply chains from China’s tightening control of strategic metals…“They’re definitely looking for more, and they’re doing it in a deliberate and expansive way,” one former U.S. defense official told FT. They described the ramp-up as the sharpest acceleration in America’s stockpiling efforts in decades…Last Thursday, Beijing announced new export restrictions on rare earths and related technologies. That retaliatory measure jolted markets and triggered an immediate U.S. political response…It is a cornerstone of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which allocates $7.5 billion to critical mineral initiatives. In addition, it also includes $2 billion for expanding the defense stockpile by 2027…Recent filings show the Pentagon targeting metals beyond its usual scope. Planned purchases include $500 million of cobalt…Meanwhile, the agency is also exploring acquisitions of tungsten, bismuth, indium, and other rare metals. Since quantities in some cases exceed U.S. annual production, the plan signals preparation for long-term strategic shortages. 

As part of a sweeping mission to break America's heavy reliance on China, Russia, and other geopolitical rivals for key inputs into the nation's defense, energy, and high-tech supply chains, the Pentagon is deploying $7.5 billion to fortify domestic critical mineral production and stockpiling…According to a Financial Times report, the Defense Department – recently rebranded as the Department of War under the Trump administration – has already allocated roughly $1 billion to acquire critical minerals for the National Defense Stockpile…This weekend news follows a report that Beijing is enforcing the strictest controls yet on the exports of rare earths and other critical minerals out of China. The breadth and intensity of these restrictions, coupled with President Trump's response to them, sent shockwaves through Wall Street on Friday…The administration's counteroffensive includes billions in domestic investment aimed at rebuilding critical mineral independence…To reverse that dependence, the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act allocates $7.5 billion to rebuild critical mineral supply chains…$5 billion for domestic supply chain investments…$2 billion to expand the National Defense Stockpile by 2027… $500 million for a Pentagon-backed program to spur private-sector projects…Roughly $1 billion of this funding is already being used to stockpile antimony, bismuth, cobalt, indium, scandium, and tantalum – materials essential to advanced defense and energy technologies…Beyond antimony, DLA is looking for sources of bismuth, cobalt, indium, niobium, scandium, tantalum, and other critical minerals for the National Defense Stockpile…DLA has also put out National Defense Stockpile solicitations for up to…$65 million of bismuth…$500 million of cobalt…In addition to stockpiling, the Pentagon is investing directly in future supplies of critical minerals. This includes last week's announcement that the War Department is investing $35.6 million to acquire 10% ownership of Trilogy Metals, a Canada-headquartered mining company advancing copper-rich critical mineral projects in Alaska's Ambler Mining District…The Pentagon's escalating stockpiling and co-investment mission is sending a signal that the stability of critical mineral supply chains is no longer just an economic issue – it's a matter of national security.

Australian mining companies with critical minerals projects made dizzying stock gains, fueled by signs of US interest in equity stakes as President Donald Trump and China intensify their strategic competition…Critical minerals are a key part of recent tensions between Washington and Beijing as the two largest economies jostle for advantages in their trade and security relationships. In recent months, the US has begun taking equity-like stakes in key players within the sector, including positions in rare earths producer MP Materials Corp, and Lithium Americas Corp. The moves were part of a broader US strategy to develop supply chains to compete with China… “China has reminded the world that it can use its dominance in rare earths and will likely continue to do so in the foreseeable future.”…The bull run for critical minerals stocks has been given an additional boost after JPMorgan Chase & Co. vowed to funnel $1.5 trillion into industries that bolster US economic security and resiliency over the next 10 years. The largest US lender said the initiative included critical minerals.

JPMorgan Chase announced plans on Monday to hire bankers and invest up to $10 billion in U.S. companies critical to national security and economic resilience as part of a broader $1.5 trillion pledge…The 10-year initiative aims to facilitate, finance and invest in industries central to the growth of the U.S. economy, including defense, energy and manufacturing…U.S. President Donald Trump is looking to modernize infrastructure and reduce dependence on foreign supply chains, particularly in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, semiconductors, clean energy and rare earth minerals…"It has become painfully clear that the United States has allowed itself to become too reliant on unreliable sources of critical minerals, products and manufacturing – all of which are essential for our national security," Dimon said in an earlier statement…JPMorgan, which helped put together the government's deal with U.S. rare earths mining company MP Materials said in a recent company podcast that the bank was working with the Trump administration to explore more such opportunities.

China’s tightening grip on the minerals that power America’s high tech is no longer a distant geopolitical concern: It’s an economic threat already moving through U.S. supply chains…That’s the warning from Wilbur Ross, former U.S. secretary of commerce under President Donald Trump, who says Beijing has learned how to use rare earth minerals as leverage over the United States, and may be preparing to weaponize supply chains even further…Ross says U.S. vulnerability has been building quietly for years, but only became visible after China introduced new export licensing requirements that he calls a “disguised rationing system.”… In other words, Ross thinks China can now ration supply to U.S. manufacturers, and do it without formally violating trade agreements…“It’s a very effective weapon … and it attacks our high-tech things and our national defense needs.”…Now, he believes the U.S. is still playing catch-up in a minerals conflict that China prepared for years ago. Domestic processing plants are being built in the U.S. and Europe, he said, but they won’t be operational fast enough to eliminate short-term supply risk.

Cobalt prices have extended gains to a three-year high, as export curbs in the world’s top producing country threaten to create a shortage of the battery material and erode confidence in its ability to meet demand…The ban on shipments by the Democratic Republic of the Congo has roiled supply chains since it was imposed in February, while the quota system that will replace it from Thursday could push the market into deficit as soon as next year…“The quota is lower than expectation for CMOC considering the recent ramp-up in cobalt output since 2022 while CMOC would benefit from hiking cobalt price after the quota policy,” analysts at Citigroup Inc. wrote in a note…Cobalt’s applications stretch from heat-resistant components in the aerospace industry to household paints, but batteries are the biggest single source of demand. The world’s top market for electric vehicles is China, and the nation’s refiners dominate processing of the metal…Congo’s export ban was introduced after output of cobalt, a byproduct of its copper mines, grew more quickly then anticipated and the market plunged. Just before the ban was announced, the metal fell below $10 a pound for the first time since 2015. It’s now nearly double that, while hydroxide has more than tripled in price…“If this quota is adhered to, there is no question that the market would run out of material before the middle of 2026, suggesting prices could potentially rise higher than in the previous bull market rally in 2022,” Macquarie Group Ltd. said in a note earlier this month, which named cobalt among its three “most preferred” commodities for the next six to nine months…The limited availability of hydroxide from Congo and its outsized gains in price are incentivizing refiners to bypass the material entirely. Instead, some refiners are buying more refined metal to dissolve directly into battery-grade cobalt sulfate, said Roman Aubry, analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Ltd.