AIBRIEF
An estimate from 3 Proton Lithium (3PL) of 1.78 million metric tons of tungsten under Railroad Valley collides with a 2023 Bureau of Land Management grant giving NASA exclusive use of 22,634 acres there for satellite calibration.
A flat, bright, dry lake bed in eastern Nevada's Great Basin has been NASA's calibration site for 33 years because the surface reflectance is known and constant: a place where satellites check their instruments before they read the rest of the planet.
A small mining company called 3 Proton Lithium (3PL) says it sits on top of almost 2 million metric tons of tungsten, a heavy metal the Pentagon wants for armor-piercing rounds and missile components, and one that the U.S. currently imports mostly from China. In 2023, the Bureau of Land Management granted NASA exclusive use of 22,634 acres there, about a third of 3PL's claim, for satellite calibration. 3PL has already lost a similar fight over lithium in the same basin.
3PL released an updated Resource Report on August 3, 2026, estimating 1.78 million tons of inferred tungsten (company-estimated, not yet third-party audited), 31 million tons of measured lithium carbonate equivalent, 533 million tons of measured potash, and 87 million tons of measured borate across 39,000 acres of leases.
The standoff is structurally tilted. The U.S. has not mined tungsten commercially since 2015, and the USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries 2026 puts China at roughly 80% of global production. The open question is not whether NASA needs the site; its 33-year record says yes. The question is whether the calibration can move, share, or be duplicated. Scientific American reports that 3PL is engaging federal permitting channels for the project.