Lithium. It’s a soft, silvery metal that is the least dense of any metal on the periodic table and vital for transitioning to electric vehicles because of its use in batteries that also include laptops and cellphones. There is a vast source of this material in Green River, Emery County, where there is a planned site to mine lithium at a former military base, where surface ground disruption has already happened. The company’s website said there is a separate chunk of a project area near Moab. Bruce Richardson, chairman and chief executive officer of Anson Resources, recently briefed lawmakers on the project’s progress, which is still in the permitting process.