She's Leading the Charge: America's First Nickel Refinery

KaLeigh Long has launched a meat subscription company, a real estate firm, a cattle operation, and a political strategy agency that hired nearly 300 contractors.

But her biggest move? Building a nickel refinery in Lawton, Oklahoma.

Not the kind of business you stumble into by accident!

In 2022, Long founded Westwin Elements to bring strategic mineral refining—something the U.S. barely does in-house—back onto American soil.

She’s aiming straight at a gaping hole in the supply chain, and doing it with the same boldness that’s carried her through every wild chapter of her career so far.

She didn’t come from mining—she came from D.C. and the Congo

Long wasn’t groomed for the metals industry. Her background is in political strategy.

She served as the Executive Director of the Conservative Leadership PAC and worked with dozens of federal campaigns. Along the way, she built a career helping other people shape their narratives and win influence.

But it was her time in the Democratic Republic of the Congo that changed everything.

There, she worked with activists speaking out against the Kabila regime. She witnessed firsthand how mining fuels abuse and instability.

And it clicked: these materials—used in everything from EVs to military tech—aren’t just economic assets. They’re national security issues.

Lesson: If you’ve seen a broken system up close, you don’t forget it. And if you’ve got the skills to change it, you don’t wait for permission.

From real estate to rare earths

Before launching Westwin Elements, Long built and sold businesses across multiple industries.

She ran an ad firm, started a cattle business, and helped launch a subscription meat box brand. She wasn’t chasing one perfect idea—she was following problems worth solving.

But nothing hit with the urgency or scale of America’s dependency on foreign mineral refining.

So she set out to solve it. Not by writing a white paper or starting a think tank—but by building the infrastructure herself.

Lesson: The path to solving big problems isn’t always linear. It’s messy. It’s stacked with experience. And it gets clearer with every risk you take.

She’s building a national security asset—in Oklahoma

The U.S. sends most of its critical minerals overseas to be refined—often in countries that don’t share its values or priorities.

KaLeigh Long didn’t like that math. So she decided to build a refinery in Lawton, Oklahoma—a move that caught attention from lawmakers and locals alike.

Westwin Elements is now on track to become the first major nickel refinery in the country, with a full greenlight from the Lawton City Council as of early 2023.

That doesn’t mean it’s been smooth. Locals raised valid concerns about environmental and health impacts.

Long responded with town halls, Q&As, and community outreach, laying out the science, safety, and long-term upside.

Lesson: Don’t just build. Explain. Listen. Lead.

She’s playing the long game with political savvy

Long’s no stranger to policy. And she’s using that background to navigate the slow-moving, red-tape-laced world of domestic industrial projects.

Thanks to her deep political roots, she’s managed to get Westwin Elements mentioned in congressional discussions about critical mineral incentives.

She’s not just building a facility—she’s building a case for why the U.S. needs to own its mineral future.

Lesson: Sometimes the most powerful tool in your kit isn’t capital—it’s context.

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KaLeigh Long isn’t your typical industrial founder. She’s not an engineer. She’s not from mining.

She’s someone who’s seen the impact of weak infrastructure and foreign dependency—and decided to change it by creating something real.

Westwin Elements is bigger than just a refinery. It’s a statement: the U.S. doesn’t have to sit on the sidelines. And thanks to her relentless push, it won’t.

Click here to get tools and strategies for spotting big opportunities before anyone else—so you can start building something bold, even if it looks nothing like what’s trending.

Sources:

• KaLeigh Long, Westwin Elements, and Lawton’s uncertain future in nickel and cobalt
• November 18, 2024: KaLeigh Long, Founder & CEO, Westwin Elements
• Oklahoma cobalt refiner eyes DRC's natural resources