NextFin News - As of February 15, 2026, the geopolitical landscape of South America has undergone a seismic shift, with the administration of U.S. President Trump signaling a profound interest in Venezuela’s mineral wealth that extends far beyond its world-leading crude oil reserves. Following an unprecedented military operation in early January that resulted in the removal of Nicolás Maduro, U.S. President Trump has explicitly called for "total access" to the nation’s resources. While oil remains a primary focus, a new strategic priority has emerged: the vast, largely untapped deposits of iron, bauxite, gold, and critical minerals like coltan and rare earth elements (REEs) buried within the Venezuelan subsoil.
According to Correio Braziliense, the U.S. administration views these "other things"—as U.S. President Trump phrased them—as essential components for the reconstruction of the Venezuelan economy and the fortification of U.S. industrial security. The Venezuelan Center for International Productive Investment (CIIP) currently estimates that the country holds the world’s eighth-largest iron reserves, totaling approximately 14.7 billion tons, and over 321 million tons of bauxite. More critically for the high-tech sector, geological surveys dating back to the 1970s, and reinforced by more recent reports from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), indicate significant deposits of thorium, niobium, and tantalum in the Cerro Impacto region, located between the states of Bolívar and Amazonas.
The drive for these minerals is rooted in a broader U.S. strategy to decouple critical supply chains from China. Currently, China processes over 90% of the world’s rare earth minerals, a monopoly that Washington views as a primary national security vulnerability. By securing access to Venezuelan REEs and coltan—the latter being vital for the production of capacitors in smartphones and defense electronics—the U.S. President aims to create a Western Hemisphere mineral corridor. This move aligns with recent executive actions by U.S. President Trump to bolster domestic mineral production and secure alternative international sources, including his administration’s parallel interest in Greenland’s mineral resources.
However, the path to commercial exploitation is fraught with technical and environmental hurdles. Geologist Gustavo Coronel, a founding director of the state-owned PDVSA, noted that while the potential is immense, the true volume of proven reserves remains unverified due to years of disorganized exploitation and a lack of independent modern studies. The region of Guayana, where most of these minerals are located, lacks the sophisticated infrastructure required for large-scale, environmentally responsible mining. Furthermore, the sociologist Emiliano Terán Mantovani has warned that an aggressive "extractivist" approach could lead to significant ecological degradation in the Amazonian regions of Bolívar and Amazonas, potentially sparking local and international backlash.
From an analytical perspective, the U.S. focus on Venezuelan minerals represents a transition from traditional energy diplomacy to a "critical mineral diplomacy." In the 20th century, Venezuela was the "gas station" of the Americas; in the mid-2020s, it is being repositioned as the "battery pack." The demand for bauxite and iron is expected to surge as the U.S. President pushes for a domestic manufacturing renaissance, while gold reserves—estimated by the CIIP to be between 2,200 and 8,000 tons—provide a liquid asset base to stabilize the transition to a post-Maduro financial system.
Looking forward, the global markets should expect a flurry of bilateral agreements between the interim Venezuelan authorities and U.S. mining giants. The trend suggests that the U.S. Department of Commerce will likely fast-track investment insurance and technical assistance to map the Guayana Shield accurately. If successful, this pivot could not only revitalize the Venezuelan economy but also fundamentally alter the global balance of power in the technology sector, providing the U.S. with a strategic mineral hedge against its Eastern rivals for the remainder of the decade.
Explore more exclusive insights at nextfin.ai.
