President Trump hosted executives from Rio Tinto, BHP, and Freeport-McMoRan on August 7, 2026, for a roundtable aimed at accelerating domestic and allied production of critical minerals outside of China. In February 2026, the administration announced a $12 billion initiative to build a national mineral stockpile, the mineral equivalent of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A July 2026 executive order further restricted defense contractors from obtaining waivers to source critical minerals from prohibited foreign suppliers. China controls a substantial share of global rare earth processing capacity, even for minerals mined elsewhere, making many countries dependent on Chinese processing facilities.
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