Commodities firms part of critical minerals ‘vault’ project

A critical minerals strategic reserves project being funded by the United States Export-Import Bank (EXIM) includes commodities trading companies Traxys and Mercuria as materials suppliers.

Luxembourg-based Traxys, which operates in North America from regional headquarters in New York, has a foot in the recycling sector through a partnership announced last year with Pure Aluminum, a secondary aluminum producer establishing operations in Saranac, Michigan.

An early February press release from EXIM does not specifically mention recycling as a source of the critical minerals reserves targeted for stockpiling by Project Vault and does not mention specific metals or minerals.

Previous Donald J. Trump White House announcements on critical minerals, including one last month, have mentioned nickel, cobalt, uranium, and rare earth elements (REEs) including gallium, germanium, indium, praseodymium terbium and yttrium.

The EXIM announcement refers to Project Vault as “a supply chain security initiative establishing the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, an independently governed public‑private partnership that will store essential raw materials in facilities across the United States.”

The specialty bank says its board of directors has approved a direct loan of up to $10 billion to Project Vault that provides long-term financing to a partnership between original equipment manufacturers and private sector capital providers.

EXIM says it has received “indications of participation” from manufacturers including Clarios, GE Vernova, Western Digital and Boeing and potential metals and minerals suppliers including Traxys, New York-based commodities trading firm Hartree Partners and the Mercuria Americas business unit of that Switzerland-based commodities firm.

Mercuria has formed an alliance with Ireland-based TechMet Ltd., which describes itself as having a “portfolio of 10 operating companies across four continents that responsibly produce, process and recycle the minerals that will define and power the 21st century economy.”

“Project Vault is designed to support domestic manufacturers from supply shocks, support U.S. production and processing of critical raw materials and strengthen America’s critical minerals sector,” says EXIM board chair John Jovanovic.

“Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve will help manufacturers in the United States compete, grow and lead globally while creating jobs domestically, strengthening our economy and advancing the national interest.”

In Michigan, Traxys and Pure Aluminum say they are building a “new greenfield state-of-the-art secondary aluminum smelter utilizing ultra efficient furnaces.”

Among the companies operated by Mercuria ally TechMet is Texas-based Momentum Technologies, which on its website describes itself as offering “technology systems [that] transform problematic critical minerals and metals containing waste, including lithium-ion battery waste, into high-purity critical minerals for efficient redeployment into the supply chain at an attractive return on investment.”