America's Cyber Defense Agency has identified 16 critical infrastructure sectors "whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof."

One of these 16 sectors is mineral infrastructure.

There does not exist today a standardized, transparent, and trustworthy system worthy of a public-private partnership, in order to move the American mining industry into the forefront of traceable and trustworthy use--from raw sourcing through to recycling.

Current total US production is 1,000 metric tons of lithium metal, while global production is 180,000 metric tons of lithium metal. Yet Nevada is capable of producing 15 times current US production alone. Securing this domestic supply chain is critical.