The U.s. Military Needs Tungsten, But Pristine Nasa Site May Stand In The Way

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August 3, 2026

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The U.S. subject needs tungsten, but pristine NASA tract whitethorn guidelines successful nan way

A unsocial landform is captious for calibrating NASA's satellites, but it's apt sitting atop a immense deposit of nan dense metal, which is important for making munitions

By Adam Kovac edited by Claire Cameron

In this U.S. Navy released handout, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Thomas Hudner (DDG 116) fires a Tomahawk onshore onslaught rocket successful support of Operation Epic Fury, connected March 1, 2026 astatine Sea.

The U.S. subject is quiet for a home proviso of tungsten, a captious mineral utilized to make weapons—but a NASA installation efficaciously blocks mining of a immense deposit of nan dense metallic successful Nevada, according to a Financial Times report.

The deposit is located successful an area of nan Great Basin Desert successful eastbound Nevada and could incorporate upward of 2 cardinal tons of tungsten. Mining institution 3 Proton Lithium (3PL) wants to create nan site, astir a 3rd of which is located successful lands reserved for NASA to usage for calibrating Earth-observing satellites. The pristine wilderness allows nan abstraction agency to fine-tune instruments connected committee these spacecraft to guarantee they make meticulous measurements.

NASA has utilized nan area, known arsenic Railroad Valley, for this intent for astatine slightest 33 years. And successful 2023, nan Bureau of Land Management formally granted NASA exclusive usage of nan 22,634 acres—blocking immoderate different nationalist aliases backstage use.

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At nan time, NASA described Railroad Valley arsenic “uniquely suited” for its purposes because of a barren lakebed that was “large, flat, free of vegetation, of a accordant aboveground color, undisturbed, easy to access, and pinch bully visibility from space.”

The mostly featureless scenery is crucial, arsenic NASA technicians cognize precisely really overmuch reflected ray satellites' optical instruments should spot successful nan area. Among nan missions that usage nan onshore are Landsat, which monitors nan Earth’s onshore and h2o resources; Suomi NPP, a upwind and ambiance study platform; and nan Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT), which maps nan creation of arid particulate that blows astir nan planet.

This is not nan first clip 3PL has tried to utilization this land: A antecedently recovered lithium deposit group up a imaginable conflict pinch nan abstraction agency successful 2023—NASA won. In a statement released Monday, 3PL said they estimate their declare contains 31 cardinal tons of lithium carbonate equivalent—if confirmed, that would make it among nan largest lithium resources successful North America. The tract besides includes ample amounts of boron and potash, 3PL said. The second is simply a brackish often utilized to make fertilizer which nan U.S. almost exclusively imports.

“We now person a measured, world-class deposit of aggregate captious minerals successful 1 basin, and nan 1 find that amazed moreover america is tungsten," said 3PL Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Kevin Moore successful nan statement. “This is simply a metallic nan United States stopped mining a decade agone and now imports while China controls and manipulates nan world market. To find much of it present than anywhere, alongside large, measured lithium, potash, and boron astatine world-class grade, is not a mining story. It is simply a nationalist information story."

Tungsten’s usefulness stems from its resilience to heat: It has nan highest pouring and boiling constituent of immoderate element, which made it cleanable for usage successful older generations of light bulbs. It besides has nan highest tensile spot of immoderate metallic and is denser than lead; these qualities make it perfect an perfect worldly to make weapons. The request for tungsten has go even much pressing owed to nan ongoing warfare pinch Iran, which has seen nan U.S. occurrence disconnected ample amounts of munitions that incorporate nan metal, specified arsenic Tomahawk missiles.

Despite its value to nan military, nan U.S. has agelong lagged successful accumulation of nan material. A February study from nan U.S. Geological Survey showed that nan state produced a negligible magnitude of nan worldly successful 2024 and 2025. By contrast, China’s mines produced 67,000 metric tons of tungsten successful each of those years, accounting for almost 80 percent of world production.

A NASA spokesperson did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.

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