BlockBeats News, October 13th – According to the Financial Times, the U.S. Department of Defense is launching a strategic mineral reserve plan with a scale of up to $1 billion on October 13th. The plan aims to weaken foreign dominance in the key metal supply chain. Public documents from the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) show that the plan includes the purchase of various metals such as cobalt, antimony, tantalum, and scandium oxide. Some metals, such as tantalum and scandium oxide, are being included in the national defense reserve list for the first time. Analysts point out that this move signifies a clear upgrade of the Trump administration’s strategic resource reserve policy, strengthening America’s autonomous capability in future tech wars and military supply chains.
On the market front, this round of “mining hoarding action” indicates an accelerated global resource restructuring. With China reducing exports and rare earth and germanium prices soaring, Western countries are experiencing heightened supply chain anxiety, leading to a general uptick in related metal futures prices. The U.S. will use the “Bigger and Better Act” appropriation to drive supply chain localization, expecting to further stimulate energy, rare earth, and battery materials sectors’ volatility, potentially triggering a new round of global mining investment frenzy.
Bitunix Analyst Viewpoint: Behind the U.S.’s “hoarding mining” strategy is an institutional response to the long-term institutionalization of geopolitical competition. This move not only reshapes the energy and defense material supply structure but also reflects a new layout of the dollar system at a resource level. If global policies in the future push forward synchronously towards the “nationalization of critical metals,” resource-based assets will once again become a safe-haven focus, and the crypto market can also seek potential allocation insights from inflation expectations and dollar outflows.
