JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The US Department of Energy (DoE) has selected three projects for funding to research the recovery of saleable rare earth elements (REE) from domestic coal and coal byproducts.
The DoE will invest about $3-million into these projects, which will focus on laboratory testing and the preparation of a technical design for a pilot plant to produce saleable REEs.
Just under $1-million will go towards Equinox Chemicals and partners, which will use byproducts from an existing eastern Kentucky coal preparation plant as their source of REEs. The Phase 1 design will consider recovery and sale of coal from the preparation plant by-products as an additional source of revenue.
Inventure Renewables and project partners will use $1-million from the DoE to advance their project, focusing on coal-related materials from an eastern Pennsylvania anthracite coal mine as a source of REEs.
The third recipient of $1-million is Marshall Miller & Associates and project partners, which use by-products from an existing West Virginia coal preparation (coal washing) plant as their raw material for extracting REEs. Their Phase 1 design will also include the recovery and sale of dry, fine, high-quality coal from as an additional source of revenue.
In addition, DOE has announced the availability of an additional $3.95-million for projects in three new topic areas to accelerate separation and extraction processes for REEs. Projects selected under this programme will focus on improving the technical, environmental, and economic performance of existing processes that recover REEs from domestic US coal and coal by-products.
The DoE expects to select up to eight projects under this programme.
REEs are a series of 17 chemical elements found in the Earth’s crust. Due to their unique chemical properties, REEs are essential components of technologies spanning a range of applications, including electronics, computer and communication systems, transportation, health care, and national defence.