Is Copper the New Oil? Washington Just Started Stockpiling It.

Project Vault, America’s $12 billion minerals stockpile, just received its first shipment. In his latest free presentation, Jim Rickards says it echoes the oil crisis of the 1970s.

Baltimore, MD, Nov. 02, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In the 1970s, America learned the hard way what happens when a vital resource is cut off. Gas lines. Price shocks. A scramble for supply.

Now Washington is acting like it’s afraid of a repeat. Only this time, the resource isn’t oil. It’s metal.

Project Vault, a $12 billion national stockpile of critical minerals, has taken its first delivery: about 12,000 tons of copper shipped from the Democratic Republic of Congo by commodities trader Mercuria.

A load of copper might sound ordinary. Put it inside a $12 billion national reserve and it tells a different story. Washington is now treating industrial metals the way it once treated oil: as a matter of national security.

In a recent free presentation, former White House and Federal Reserve advisor Jim Rickards says that shift is long overdue, and that it points to something much bigger.

Why the Rush?

Rickards puts the problem bluntly. “We rely on China for 100% of 20 key minerals,” he says.

These aren’t niche materials. Rickards says they go into everything from AI chips and electric vehicles to satellites, drones and fighter jets. “Practically every device with an ‘on’ button,” he says.

And Beijing has shown it’s willing to use that leverage. China has restricted exports of several critical minerals to the United States. “China cut us off!” Rickards says. His warning is stark: “If we don’t act – our whole economy could tip into crisis.”

That’s the risk a $12 billion reserve is built to cover.

We’ve Seen This Movie Before

Rickards has lived through a version of it. He compares today’s minerals standoff to the Arab Oil Embargo of the 1970s, when he says he was working with the Nixon administration on America’s response.

“The same kind of thing is happening today in the market for critical minerals,” he says.

The oil shock led to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in 1975. Half a century later, Project Vault applies the same logic to metals. Stock up before the crisis, not after it.

Imported Copper. Homegrown Copper Still in the Ground.

Here’s the twist. America’s first strategic copper came from halfway around the world. Meanwhile, Rickards argues, the country is sitting on enormous mineral wealth of its own.

He calls these minerals “the building blocks of life.” And he believes policy changes in Washington could finally make far more of them accessible here at home.

It’s part of a bigger shift in how Washington views what it owns. Rickards points to the creation of America’s first sovereign wealth fund, and to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s promise: “We’re going to monetize the asset side of the U.S. balance sheet.”

Other countries have done this for decades. Norway’s resource-backed fund, Rickards notes, holds around “$350,000 set aside for every man, woman and child.” What America’s version will hold is still unknown. “No one knows how they’ll use this Fund. Or what will go inside it,” Rickards says. “But there are clues.”

The Question Behind the Stockpile

The $12 billion reserve shows how seriously Washington now takes the supply of critical metals.

Rickards wants people to flip the question around. If the government is racing to stockpile copper from overseas, what is it finally ready to unlock beneath American soil? And who stands to benefit when it does?

About This Presentation

For decades, America treated oil as the resource worth fighting over. Jim Rickards believes metals are next. In The American Birthright, his free presentation, he explains why Washington’s new focus on critical minerals could reshape the value of the resources buried under federal land. Watch it here.

About Jim Rickards

Jim Rickards has spent his career where Washington, Wall Street and national security meet. He has advised the White House and the Federal Reserve, and briefed members of the U.S. intelligence community. In 2007, he testified before the U.S. Treasury, warning of a looming financial crisis and offering a detailed plan to avoid it. His work focuses on how geopolitics and strategic resources move markets.

Derek Warren
Public Relations Manager
Paradigm Press Group
Email: dwarren@paradigmpressgroup.com