The United States stopped mining tungsten domestically more than a decade ago. Now, an enormous discovery beneath Nevada could potentially change that — assuming its developer can navigate federal permitting, possible litigation and an unusual obstacle involving NASA.
Developer 3 Proton Lithium estimates its Railroad Valley Minerals project contains approximately 1.78 million metric tons of tungsten. If that estimate holds, MINING.com reports it could represent the largest known tungsten deposit in the United States, more than five times the size of the country’s next-largest resource.
That matters because tungsten is not merely another industrial metal. Its exceptional density, hardness and ability to withstand extreme temperatures make it useful in everything from cutting equipment and semiconductors to jet engines and armor-piercing ammunition.
China, meanwhile, controls roughly 80% of global tungsten production, according to U.S. Geological Survey data.
The timing of the Nevada discovery is therefore difficult to ignore.
China imposed export controls on tungsten and several other critical minerals in February 2025, requiring licenses for covered exports. Beijing subsequently reduced tungsten mining quotas and announced that only 15 companies would be authorized to export the metal during 2026 and 2027.
Prices responded dramatically. By April 2026, Reuters reported that ammonium paratungstate, an intermediate product used in tungsten manufacturing, had risen more than 200% since the beginning of the year.
America may have a substantial domestic alternative sitting underground.
Getting to it is the problem.
“This is a major resource play even with the NASA roadblock to a portion of it,” energy public policy analyst David Blackmon told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
And yes, that roadblock really is NASA.
Part of the deposit lies beneath federal land that the space agency uses for something completely unrelated to mining: calibrating Earth-observing satellites.
NASA has used Nevada’s Railroad Valley for satellite calibration since 1993. The dry lakebed offers an unusual combination of characteristics useful for that work. It is large, flat, largely devoid of vegetation, visually consistent and easily observable from space.
In April 2023, the Interior Department granted NASA’s request to withdraw approximately 23,000 acres from mineral development for 20 years. That protection stretches into the early 2040s and currently prevents exploration on the affected land.
The result is an unusual collision of federal priorities. One part of the government has an established scientific use for the land, while another national priority calls for reducing American dependence on foreign critical minerals.
Blackmon said President Donald Trump could potentially intervene if he concluded access to the tungsten was necessary for national security.
The administration has already taken steps to accelerate the broader project.
Railroad Valley received treatment under FAST-41, the federal program designed to coordinate agency reviews and establish permitting timelines for major infrastructure projects. The Trump administration expanded its use for critical-mineral projects in 2025 as part of an effort to accelerate domestic production.
“Tungsten’s key role in hardening munitions and other military applications made the Railroad Valley project a natural FAST-41 candidate,” Blackmon said.
But fast-track does not mean instant approval.
FAST-41 can coordinate the bureaucracy and establish schedules. It cannot erase environmental reviews, competing land uses or lawsuits.
And mining projects can spend years fighting those battles.
The Stibnite Gold Project in Idaho offers a recent example. Environmental organizations sought a court order in May to halt construction, arguing that the project threatened wildlife and waterways. A federal judge denied the request, allowing construction to continue while litigation proceeds.
Stibnite is itself tied directly to another American mineral vulnerability: antimony.
The Department of Defense awarded $24.8 million to advance that project because antimony is needed for missiles, munitions and other military applications. The Justice Department has described Stibnite as important to national defense, with operations currently scheduled for 2029.
Tungsten presents a comparable supply-chain concern.
The military uses the metal’s unusual density and hardness in armor-piercing ammunition, while the U.S. Geological Survey identifies ammunition and jet engines among its applications. It is also used extensively in electrical and electronic products.
Yet America currently depends on foreign sources rather than producing newly mined tungsten domestically.
Ashley Burke of the National Mining Association argues that America’s approval process is a major reason mineral discoveries don’t quickly become operating mines.
“It takes 29 years to bring a mine online in the U.S. from discovery to production, including extensive permitting, the second longest timeline in the world; that’s not sustainable,” Burke told the DCNF.
Her argument is that permitting reform need not eliminate environmental scrutiny. Instead, she wants regulators to reduce duplicated reviews and establish predictable timelines.
Litigation presents a separate difficulty. Even after agencies issue permits, lawsuits can potentially delay construction for years.
“A transparent, predictable and streamlined permitting process is exactly what American mining needs,” Burke said. “This is about keeping the rigor of the review process but removing duplication and unnecessary delays.”
Railroad Valley now provides a particularly concrete test of that proposition.
The geological claim is enormous: an estimated 1.78 million metric tons of tungsten at a time when the country that dominates global production is restricting exports. The Trump administration has identified domestic critical-mineral production as a priority and provided the project with a mechanism intended to accelerate federal reviews.
But geology doesn’t automatically produce metal.