Why Everyone Underestimates Nevada's Critical Mineral Position with Caleb Cage

Nevada's lithium loop — the closed-cycle supply chain spanning extraction, processing, manufacturing, and recycling — positions the state as the only place in America with companies operating across all seven stages of the battery economy. Caleb Cage, president of the Nevada Battery Coalition, explains why the state's unique geology, regulatory climate, and executive support from Governor Lombardo create an advantage no other state can replicate. With 90 percent of critical mineral processing currently happening in China, the urgency to build domestic capacity has never been sharper.The conversation between Cage and Kristopher Sanchez, director of Nevada's Department of Business and Industry, maps the specific bottlenecks standing between raw lithium in the ground and finished batteries on the market. Topics range from the missing middle of midstream processing to the infrastructure deficits in rural counties where mines are opening, including road access to the TRIC complex in Storey County and the potential revival of dormant rail lines for a north-south freight connector.Cage details how Silver Peak remains the only operational lithium mine in the United States, with Thacker Pass in Humboldt County and the Ioneer Rhyolite Ridge project in Esmeralda County building on-site processing into their plans to ship directly to offtake partners like GM. A McKinsey study cited in the episode found the average mine takes 29 years from discovery to production — a timeline the Lombardo administration is attacking through the elimination of roughly 900 regulations and a directive to cabinet agencies to remove bureaucratic barriers wherever statute allows.Nevada's battery supply chain represents a rare convergence of natural resources, federal fast-track permitting programs, and state-level economic diversification strategy built over more than a decade of deliberate policy work.