Highlights

• The US government, Orion Resource Partners, and Abu Dhabi's ADQ have launched a $5 billion joint investment vehicle targeting critical mineral assets.
• $1.8 billion is initially committed, including $600 million from the Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
• This is the first credible attempt to reduce China's grip on global supply chains.
• The fund focuses on near-term producing assets.
• Challenges include high valuations, political complications in regions like the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), technical uncertainties, and infrastructure gaps.
• Deliberately excludes any Chinese-controlled projects.
• This marks a milestone shift from government rhetoric to actual co-investment with experienced mining financiers.
• Potential to accelerate Western access to minerals like NdPr, Dy/Tb, cobalt, and copper.
• Success depends heavily on execution amid fractured US policy approaches.

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Could a new power bloc be in the making?  A Bloomberg report (opens in a new tab) in September confirms something unusually consequential in the rare earth and critical minerals world: the United States, Orion Resource Partners (opens in a new tab), and Abu Dhabi’s ADQ (opens in a new tab), a sovereign wealth fund, have launched a joint investment vehicle targeting $5 billion for critical mineral assets. The initial commitment—$1.8 billion—is already substantial. But what matters more is the architecture: a U.S. government-backed, private-sector-led, Middle Eastern capital-fueled consortium aimed at systematically reducing China’s grip on global supply chains.

For Rare Earth Exchanges readers, this is not just another fund announcement. This is the first credible attempt by the Trump administration to couple US International Development Finance Corp (DFC) firepower with a specialized mining financier—and with the deep pockets of a sovereign wealth fund that has long courted resource security.

Grand Strategy or Photo-Op? What the Record Shows

The key points:

• DFC has committed $600M, consistent with its expanding mandate under Trump.
• Orion’s AUM and ADQ partnership is well-documented.
• And yes, the U.S. is aggressively pursuing bilateral deals—most notably with Australia and the DRC.

Where the narrative stretches is in its quiet assumption that a B fund can meaningfully counter a Chinese resource machine that has spent three decades building integrated mining-to-magnet dominance from Myanmar to Inner Mongolia to Sichuan, even $5B is a rounding error compared to China’s state-backed capital deployment.

And there is a subtle geopolitical gloss: Bloomberg frames the U.S. effort as a coherent strategic push, when in reality Washington’s approach remains fractured—caught somewhere between industrial patriotism and a creeping, insider-friendly crony capitalism emerging in pockets of the current administration.

The Unsaid: Risks, Bottlenecks, and Selective Optimism

The consortium’s stated focus on “near-term producing assets” is realistic given U.S. timelines. But it also narrows the field dramatically—because most near-term assets not controlled by China are:

• Already priced high,
• Politically complicated (DRC),
• Technically uncertain (Africa’s ionic clays), or
• Infrastructure-starved (North America).

Lewnowski’s vow—“We will go where the rocks are”—is catchy but incomplete. Investors need to ask: Will they go where the rocks are, or where the politics allow them to go? Critically, he confirms no Chinese project will be touched. Sensible politically; constraining economically.

Why This Matters for Rare Earth Investors

This fund is not a silver bullet. But it is a milestone. For the first time, the U.S. government is not merely lecturing about resource security—it is co-investing with a mining financier that actually knows how to deploy capital in the real world. If managed well, this consortium could accelerate Western access to NdPr, Dy/Tb, cobalt, and copper—especially as price floors, tariffs, and DoD partnerships reshape the geopolitical chessboard.

If mismanaged, it will become another well-funded monument to bureaucratic optimism. But there should be cautious optimism.

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