U.S. taps Glencore to stockpile critical minerals with $500 million EXIM backing

Glencore, the Swiss commodity house listed in London and based in Baar, said Wednesday the U.S. government had selected it as a founding partner in VaultCo LLC, a privately governed reserve that will store critical minerals and base metals in the United States. Financing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States, described only as a $500 million commitment, will let Glencore source, procure and deliver those inventories.

The $500 million is public financing with no named instrument, no disclosed Glencore cash or ownership stake in VaultCo LLC, and no published price for the metal. Glencore called it a “commitment.” EXIM has not published its own description of the facility, and neither party said whether the money is a loan, a guarantee or some other form.

EXIM has already drawn the line on who runs the stockpile. “While EXIM retains a non-voting board observer role, VaultCo is not government-run,” spokesman Brian Benko told E&E News on February 26. The agency oversees how the Project Vault loan is spent, he said, but the stockpile is not subject to direct congressional oversight.

Brett B. Lambert, VaultCo’s executive chair, put the purpose in one line: “Mineral security is national security.” Jyothish George, Glencore’s head of marketing for metals and bulks, said the trader was partnering with EXIM and VaultCo “to support critical minerals security and help ensure American industry has access to the materials it needs.”

How VaultCo buys and stores metal

Project Vault is built around manufacturers. Mayer Brown, in a March 12 note, described the model as demand-led: participating original-equipment manufacturers name the mineral, the grade and the volume, then make a long-term financial commitment. The reserve buys and stores to those orders before a shortage hits. Participants pay a commitment fee, storage costs and interest on the financing; in return they get access to the specified material when predefined disruptions hit. In ordinary years they may withdraw a portion for regular use, and they have to replenish what they take.

Trading houses already have the procurement job. EXIM in February named Hartree Partners, Mercuria Americas and Traxys as suppliers, firms Mayer Brown described as the designated procurement agents, some already signing offtake memoranda with producers. Glencore is now a founding partner with a mandate to source, procure and deliver. That is physical offtake, routed through a marketing book, not an equity check.

Wednesday’s release still does not say which minerals VaultCo will buy from Glencore, in what tonnage, on what calendar, or in what legal form the $500 million arrives.

A $10 billion EXIM loan sits behind VaultCo LLC

Wednesday’s announcement sits on a facility EXIM approved on February 2. The board authorized a direct loan of up to $10 billion to Project Vault, which EXIM later called more than double the largest financing in its history. In May, EXIM said the transaction also brought in nearly $2 billion of private-sector investment. That February loan is a separate fact from the $500 million named this week.

EXIM has described VaultCo as an independently governed public-private partnership that would store essential raw materials in facilities across the United States, with the structure intended to deliver a net positive return for taxpayers and stable access for manufacturers during disruptions. In February it listed initial OEM interest from Clarios, GE Vernova, Western Digital and Boeing. It did not call those companies founding partners. Glencore’s Wednesday release named no other founding partner.

Lambert’s chairmanship is not new. VaultCo LLC announced his appointment as executive chairman on July 9, with EXIM Chairman and President John Jovanovic quoted in the release. EXIM’s seat on that board is the non-voting observer role Benko described.

The Defense Logistics Agency’s Strategic Materials office already holds a National Defense Stockpile under the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act. VaultCo is a separate commercial inventory, paid for by participating manufacturers and financed through EXIM.

Last year’s MP Materials transaction used a different set of tools. On July 10, 2025, MP Materials announced a multibillion-dollar package with the Department of Defense that positioned DoD to become the company’s largest shareholder, set a 10-year price floor of $110 per kilogram on MP’s NdPr products, and committed that defense and commercial customers would take 100% of the magnets from MP’s planned 10X plant for 10 years after construction. VaultCo, as described, does not take a stake in Glencore and does not publish a price floor.

Glencore’s book is copper, cobalt, nickel and zinc

Glencore is a producer as well as a trader. Own-sourced output in 2025 was 851,600 tonnes of copper, down 11% from 2024; 36,100 tonnes of cobalt, down 5%; 71,900 tonnes of nickel, down 13%; and 969,400 tonnes of zinc, up 7%, according to Glencore’s full-year production report.

The cobalt line has tightened further. Glencore’s Half-Year Production Report 2026, released July 29, put own-sourced cobalt at 10,200 tonnes, 46% below the first half of 2025, a drop the company said primarily reflected the DRC government’s ongoing cobalt export quota regime. KCC and Mutanda, its Congo copper-cobalt operations, exported no cobalt in the fourth quarter of 2025, according to the company’s full-year 2025 production report. A partner that can source on the open market, not only from its own pits, is the role Glencore is taking.

Glencore’s 4% slot in miner funds

Glencore’s U.S.-listed fund exposure is a copper and diversified-miner holding. The iShares global industrial-metals miners fund CPICK, a C on etf.net’s published method, held Glencore at 4.26% as of Tuesday. The Global X copper-miners fund CCOPX, also a C, held it at 4.63% as of Monday, inside a $7.64 billion book. First Trust’s critical-metals fund CFMTL, a C-graded $30 million product, held it at 7.88%. VanEck’s rare-earth and strategic-metals fund AREMX, graded A in etf.net’s critical-materials category, had MP Materials at 6.78% as of September 20 and no Glencore in its top 15. State Street’s U.S. metals-and-mining fund BXME, graded B, had MP at 4.51% as of Monday.

For a holder of CPICK or CCOPX, the honest consequence is little, yet: Glencore is the same 4% slot it was on Tuesday.

By 9:51 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, copper traded at $6.76 a pound, down 1.2%, and the miner funds below were lower with it.

The liquid Glencore exposure sits in copper and diversified miner funds. AREMX, the rare-earth fund closest to the policy theme, does not hold the company named this morning.

The manufacturers who pay the commitment fee sit on the other side of this buying. They specify the grades and volumes, they can draw metal in a disruption, and they have to replenish what they take for ordinary use. What Wednesday does not say is who carries a loss if the stored inventory is worth less than it cost: EXIM’s loan book, VaultCo LLC’s private capital, Glencore’s marketing account, or those manufacturers.