Doug Burgum

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has created a great buffer on price shocks for American consumers for decades and decades.

We have no equivalent on critical minerals.

There are 60 minerals on the critical minerals list.

Some of those are rare earth elements.

China, as you know, Jonathan, controls about 85% to 100% of the processing and refining on about 20 of those.

enough to put a stranglehold on global industry, whether it's tech, high tech, whether it's defense, whether it's consumer.

And so with the threats last year put out by China on export controls, the US leapt into action.

We're broadly bringing mining back in America, but this idea of creating a strategic critical minerals reserve across 60 different elements, driven by the private sector, great leadership across the board of multiple cabinet secretaries in the Trump administration, working with the Ex-Im Bank, working with the private sector, about $10 billion in a loan, about $2 billion in equity capital going in.

This is going to be private sector funded, market driven.

And those critical minerals will be stored at locations that are economically smart and economically efficient around the country.

But the idea is that we will, in addition to that, last week there was also at the State Department a historic meeting.

Over 50 countries came to the U.S.

All of them, some of them already signed on.

Others, many others interested, joining a club of nations.

with free trade on critical minerals with price floors.

The key on price floors is that it would block China from illegal dumping to kill the price across any one particular critical mineral.

And that's going to allow the assurance for capital to start flowing back into mining and refining of these minerals in the U.S.

and in our allies.

So tremendous interest from China.

from the leaders, ministers from around the country that were there at the event hosted the State Department last week.