US Critical Minerals Stockpile Gets First Copper Delivery from Congo

Swiss commodity trader Mercuria has delivered the first physical copper into Project Vault, the strategic critical minerals reserve backed by the US government. Kostas Bintas, the company's global head of metals and minerals, disclosed the shipment on Thursday, October 15, 2026, at the Financial Times Metals and Mining Summit in London. According to Bintas, 12,000 metric tons of copper from the Democratic Republic of Congo entered the reserve during the week, in what is being described as a first trial delivery.

The metal is now stored in warehouses on US soil. However, neither Mercuria nor VaultCo, the company that runs the program, has disclosed the exact storage sites, the purchase price or the timetable for further deliveries. At current market prices, the cargo is worth roughly $170 million.

The copper comes from a broader supply commitment made by Congo. In January, the Congolese state miner Gécamines announced that it would ship 100,000 tons of copper to the United States in 2026, taken from its 20% share of production at the Tenke Fungurume mine, with Mercuria providing financing and logistics. Bintas confirmed that this first cargo is part of that arrangement, which means that most of the promised volume still has to be shipped before the end of the year.

Project Vault was officially launched on February 2, 2026, during a press conference at the White House. The initiative was a response to Chinese export restrictions on rare earths and other critical materials, which exposed how vulnerable US manufacturers had become to sudden supply interruptions. The Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) approved a direct loan of up to $10 billion for the project, the largest financing authorization in the agency's history, and the plan foresees close to $2 billion in private capital, for a total of about $12 billion.

Unlike the National Defense Stockpile, which mainly serves military needs, Project Vault is designed for the civilian industrial base, including manufacturing, infrastructure and energy. It follows a demand-led model: participating companies pay upfront costs and can secure minerals at fixed prices, while the material is held in a reserve that they can draw on during a market disruption. Manufacturers such as GE Vernova, Clarios and Boeing expressed support for the initiative at launch, and commodity traders Hartree Partners, Traxys and Mercuria were named as the first suppliers.

For several months, the project existed mostly as a financing framework. That changed on September 23, 2026, when Glencore and Mercuria each committed $500 million to VaultCo, the independently governed private company that implements Project Vault, during an event held in New York alongside the United Nations General Assembly. EXIM then declared the reserve operational, and Mercuria presented itself as an anchor partner able to support supply, logistics and storage for US industrial users.

The program is now expanding on the demand side as well. On October 14, VaultCo executive chairman Brett Lambert said the company was in discussions with more than 70 firms across the critical minerals supply chain and was preparing a first round of loans worth up to $1 billion for original equipment manufacturers. More than a dozen US manufacturers are expected in this first group, with another cohort to follow. Market participants nevertheless point out that key details remain unclear, including the list of eligible minerals, sourcing rules, purchase prices and the conditions under which inventory can be released.

The first delivery arrives in a very tight copper market. Prices on the London Metal Exchange reached a record of $14,875 per ton on September 10, and cash copper has averaged about $14,566 per ton so far in October, compared with roughly $13,089 in January. Supply risks remain present, as supervisors at BHP's Escondida mine in Chile, the largest copper mine in the world, have voted in favor of a strike.

US trade policy has also reshaped global flows. A 50% Section 232 tariff has applied to semi-finished copper products such as wire, pipe, rod and sheet since August 2025. The Commerce Department recommended a tariff on refined copper of 15% from January 2027, rising to 30% in 2028, but no decision has been announced even though the departmental report was due on June 30, 2026. The prospect of this duty pulled large volumes of metal into the country. COMEX-approved US warehouses now hold more than 714,000 tons, about 70% of visible global stocks, and total US copper inventories are estimated at around 1.6 million tons. The price premium that encouraged these shipments has since narrowed sharply.

Copper is a central input for power grids, electric vehicles, data centers, construction and defense equipment, which explains its place in a reserve focused on industrial resilience. One analysis estimates that stockpile demand for copper, lithium and graphite could each exceed 10% of annual supply, so government-backed buying may compete with commercial offtake and tighten availability outside the United States, even though the International Copper Study Group raised its forecast for the 2026 refined copper surplus to 104,000 tons on October 14.

Congo is becoming a key source for the reserve beyond copper. Ivanhoe Mines, Gécamines and Mercuria have been in advanced talks to send zinc-rich concentrate from the Kipushi mine to the United States, while Glencore and the US-backed Orion Critical Mineral Consortium announced a deal to channel Congolese cobalt and copper into the US supply chain under the same program.

The 12,000-ton cargo represents only a small fraction of annual US copper demand, but it is the first concrete sign that Project Vault has moved from announcements to physical stockpiling. The next steps to watch are the pace of further Gécamines shipments, the first loans to manufacturers, greater transparency on pricing and release rules, and the long-delayed White House decision on refined copper tariffs.