Tajikistan9 Feb 2026 10:50
Can AP with VAST/Gulf get a piece of the CM/REE pie?
Central Asia’s Strategic Mineral Potential
While Project Vault focuses first on securing strategic mineral flow and shielding domestic access from global shocks, its ultimate success will depend on a significant diversification of upstream supply. This is where Central Asia can play a key role. Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan sit atop significant deposits of a wide range of strategic minerals identified as critical by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). While the United States began surveying and inventorying the region’s rare earth deposits in 2012, Central Asia didn’t draw significant attention until recently.
Despite Kazakhstan being the world’s largest supplier of uranium since 2009, holding up to half of the world’s supply of tungsten, and Tajikistan producing approximately a quarter of global antimony supply, U.S. supply chains have found the region too remote. However, as Washington has sought greater independence from sole-sourced materials from China, the rare earth and strategic metal deposits found across the region are now seen to represent a significant alternative for U.S. policymakers.
Project Vault is a critical and separate component of the administration’s focus.
Formally approved by the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) on February 2, Project Vault will be backed with up to $10 billion in long-term financing and an additional $2 billion in private sector participation. In sites across the country, the initiative will establish stores of critical minerals and rare earth elements essential for aerospace, defense, semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, renewables, and electric vehicles.
The stockpile’s structure will be operated as a public-private partnership that enables manufacturers, trading firms, and private capital providers to jointly participate. Rare earths, copper, lithium, titanium, scandium, gallium, and germanium are all key minerals highlighted by the U.S. Department of the Interior that underpin modern technologies and demonstrate U.S. vulnerability to supply chain disruptions.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
