US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Tuesday said he expects Washington to announce as many as 11 trade agreements this week on critical minerals.
Mr Burgum was speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies conference, which was also expected to be attended by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
Mr Burgum, who chairs the National Dominance Energy Council, spoke on the eve of the US's first critical minerals summit. The State Department said delegations from more than 50 countries are expected to attended Wednesday's summit aimed at diversifying supply chains and reducing reliance on China.
The production of rare-earth minerals has been a significant focus for US President Donald Trump's administration since China placed export restrictions amid the countries' trade dispute.
On Monday, Mr Trump announced a $12 billion stockpile of critical and rare-earth materials to reduce reliance on Chinese imports.
“We're launching what will be known as Project Vault to ensure that American businesses and workers are never harmed by any shortage,” he said at the White House.
Project Vault will include $10 billion in seed funding from the Export-Import Bank and $2 billion from the private sector, Mr Trump said.
Critical minerals were also a focus point in bilateral arrangements with Australia, Japan, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Thailand. Mr Burgum said more countries would be part of the so-called critical minerals club this week.
The State Department in December also launched the Pax Silicia initiative – which was recently joined by the UAE and Qatar – to build resilient supply chains for technologies essential to artificial intelligence, including critical minerals.
The US government recently took a minority stake in the critical minerals start-up USA Rare Earth. The administration has also taken equity stakes in other companies in the critical minerals industry including Lithium Americas, MP Materials and Trilogy Metals.
Reuters contributed to this report
