GM Defense President Steve duMont Joins ‘Varney & Co.’ derailing America’s race to build the world’s first rare earth refinery, the growing threat of China’s supply cuts and the urgent pressure to protect assets critical to US military power.
The ouster of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro has raised questions about the future of the country – and its vast natural resources. While many, including President Donald Trump, are focusing on Venezuela’s oil as a potential boon for the US, one expert says the country’s rare earth minerals may be overlooked.
Trump announced on Monday that Venezuela would give the US “between 30 and 50 million barrels of oil” to the US following Maduro’s capture.
“I am happy to announce that the Interim Authorities in Venezuela will transfer between 30 and 50 MILLION barrels of high quality, approved oil to the United States of America,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This oil will be sold at its market price, and that money will be controlled by me, as the President of the United States of America, to ensure that it is used to benefit the people of Venezuela and the United States!”
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President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping. (Photos by Anna Moneymaker/Getty; Evaristo SA/Getty Images / Getty Images)
However, the president has not said what the US will do – if anything – with the rare Venezuelan land. Trump has used the exotic world as leverage in other global situations, such as his deal with Ukraine, which shows its strategic importance.
“While everyone is talking about power, which is very important, and everyone is talking about the issue of human rights, no matter what side you are on, there are other big issues here, and the alien world is one of them,” Anthony Esposito, Founder and CEO of AscalonVI Capital, told FOX Business.
“If you look at the production, mining production, 70% owned by China, you keep 50% inside China, and 90% of the processing and refining is done by the Chinese. Therefore, there is a big bottleneck where the world is rare,” said Esposito. “The Chinese, and the Iranians, but the Chinese especially the exotic world, moved into Venezuela successfully and began to block the existing supply.”
Rare earths are used in a variety of applications and are an integral part of many advanced technology products ranging from consumer-oriented devices such as smartphones and electric vehicles to military ones such as radars and cruise missiles.
Independent verification of Venezuela’s exotic reserves remains limited. Rare Earth Exchanges, a news platform covering the rare earth and precious minerals sector, reported in December 2025 that Venezuela’s reserves do not compete with those of China, Australia or the US and instead include “reported occurrences related to the Guana Shield – sand with monazite, carbonatitic and granitic indicators, and thorium-associated minerals.”
Currently, China controls most of the world’s exotic markets, but Esposito argues that Venezuela’s resources can play an important role in reducing US dependence on Beijing. While Esposito acknowledges that Venezuela will not be the perfect solution, he says the US should seek to get some of these priorities “on our side of the world.”
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Ren Limin, who works at the Jinyuan Company’s smelter, prepares to pour the rare metal Lanthanum into a mold near the city of Damao in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on Oct. 31, 2010. (David Gray / Reuters / Reuters)
“From what I have seen, there are about 300,000-metric tons of rare earth found in Venezuela that we estimate. That is almost half of what we think in China, but when you combine that with the departure of President Trump in Ukraine, where part of the first agreement and the current agreement, we will actually have business relations and investments of a certain country, where the countries of Asia start mining. put together a puzzle or a small mosaic of partners in the space there we can deal with the logistics and production and the pipeline that China has,” Esposito said.
“So, will Venezuela surpass the rare earth that is currently found in China, mined, produced, refined? No. Is it part of a great chess game? Certainly, and I think it is an important part of that game,” he added.
A woman waits in front of a Venezuelan flag during a rally organized by the ruling party to demand the release of President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, in Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 7, 2026. (Javier Campos / NurPhoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Esposito also warned that international power from Venezuela would not be a quick solution, saying that it would take several years for it to take an active role in the supply chain, even if the US were in charge of the country, as Trump has suggested.
“I think you’re probably looking at a three- to six-year process for both energy and rare earth. Just to build the infrastructure, just to start mining and extracting is going to be a big project,” Esposito told FOX Business.
Fox News Digital’s Eric Revell contributed to this report.
