Nice when you can solve two problems with one technology.
American Resources Corporation AREC has announced the development of a cutting-edge leaching solution that is modular, mobile and scalable. This novel solution allows for the extraction of rare earth concentrates from coal waste and other mining waste — materials that are often considered environmental burdens.
The company intends to roll out these units across its 30,000-acre controlled property and license them to landowners and mining operators around the world, generating royalty-based revenues. The leachate produced from this process will be delivered to ReElement Technologies, where it will be refined into high-purity rare earth products for use by domestic and allied-nation magnet manufacturers.
ReElement Technologies has proven its ability to produce high-purity, individually separated rare earth oxides from coal waste. Additionally, the company is working with a U.S.-based partner to obtain rare earth concentrates extracted from mine water liabilities, further expanding a sustainable and domestically sourced supply chain for critical minerals.
ReElement has demonstrated its capability to produce rare earth oxides from a wide variety of feedstocks, including end-of-life permanent magnets, virgin ores and waste materials from coal and mining operations. While traditional solvent extraction methods have made rare earth recovery from coal waste extremely complex and costly, ReElement’s advanced technology offers an efficient and economical solution. It enables the refinement of both heavy and light rare earth elements from these complex sources, while recovering additional valuable byproducts like alumina, silicon, yttrium, and others—something conventional methods cannot achieve.
American Resources’ controlled properties, such as its site in West Virginia, hold millions of tons of previously mined coal waste. Early testing has revealed rare earth concentrations exceeding 500 ppm, confirming the potential to support the domestic supply chain through ReElement’s patented technology.
For years, the United States has depended on imports of rare earth elements, the critical materials found in everything from smartphones to renewable energy technologies.
But in a surprising twist, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin have discovered that a massive domestic supply has been sitting right under our noses all along.
Trapped within the country’s coal ash deposits lies a staggering $8.4 billion worth of these essential elements, a finding that could significantly reduce dependence on imports and reshape America’s approach to sourcing critical minerals.
Coal ash, the powdery byproduct left after burning coal for fuel, has long been considered an industrial waste product.
However, scientists have now identified coal ash as an abundant and accessible source of rare earth elements.
These elements are crucial in manufacturing batteries, solar panels, and high-performance magnets.
“This really exemplifies the ‘trash to treasure’ mantra,” said Bridget Scanlon, co-lead author of the study and a research professor at UT Austin’s Bureau of Economic Geology.
“We’re basically trying to close the cycle and use waste and recover resources in the waste, while at the same time reducing environmental impacts.”
The study estimates that U.S. coal ash contains 11 million tons of rare earth elements.
That’s nearly eight times the country’s known domestic reserves.
This is the first national assessment of coal ash as a resource, presenting a new way to strengthen America’s supply of critical minerals.
Unlike traditional mining, coal ash extraction has a key advantage.
The burning process has already separated the minerals from their original ore.
This reduces the need for energy-intensive refining steps.
“There’s huge volumes of this stuff all over the country,” said Davin Bagdonas, a research scientist at the University of Wyoming. “And the upfront process of extracting the (mineral host) is already taken care of for us.”
That does sound useful and a good use from waste products, ie. producing rare earth’s from a concentration not far off the same as atmospheric CO2. Almost reads as a marvel of modern day alchemy.
Awesome, simply awesome.
2 considerations:
REMs are not required for solar, wind, or batteries, though some of those use them. Magnets used in wind turbines for example, can be made from ferrites, a waste product of steel making, I believe.
Years ago, I read about a process to extract stuff from coal ash but it required fresh ash, not oxidized, I presume. So if this is the same thing, it will only work as long as we keep burning coal. Oops. Just what we need—another industry with a vested interest in burning coal and more stranded assets.
Is it the same process?
There’s fly ash, which is the lightweight product of coal burning, and bottom ash (clinkers and such), both of which are useful in concrete and paving applications.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_combustion_products#Fly_ash
Bear in mind that finding a useful application of legacy waste products can’t compensate for the ongoing and increasing cost of burning coal for grid power.
any link on those ferrites for magnets?
I think the existing mountains of coal ash are enough to keep the REM supply going for a while.
I don’t have access to my notes right now so no link. Sorry. I’m guessing Dan Gearino/Inside Climate News, Michael Barnard/Cleantechnica, David Roberts, or Visual Capitalist’s graphics.
IF you can get REMs from old mine waste, yeah, we can sorta keep getting REMs from old king coal mines, although to prevent continued dying, that stuff should be buried deeply and forever, now. (Isn’t that the last line in 4 Quartets?)
The article did say other mining works too, so maybe we can just use bauxite, copper, sand, limestone, rock, and other mines for it, despite the drastic decrease in mining that switching to renewable energy, efficiency, and wiser lives will entail(ings). Every once in a while I read an offhand remark in an article about 1 mineral, that either it can be found in other mines or other minerals are commonly found with it. I wonder if there’s 1 source that lists a lot of such cohabitationizing minerals.
With increasing regulations requiring sulfur to be extracted from crude oil products, those industries found a market for all of this waste sulfur, and the need to directly mine it (e.g., in Sulphur, La.) went away.