West Virginia University has taken the spotlight this month by turning polluted water from old coal sites into valuable materials that the United States needs. As worries over the country’s short supply of rare earths continue to grow, reporters have flocked to the school’s pilot plant in Mount Storm.
Visitors who toured the plant in mid-August left impressed. They watched the system clean toxic reddish water and collect the useful elements at the same time, leaving a clear turquoise stream ready for safe release. This follows the university formally launching its Rare Earth Elements Initiative in May. A group of researchers involved with this endeavour is now working to pull these key materials from a wider range of everyday waste.
Eyes are on the project right now because those recent plant visits showed clear, working results. This effort is not new though, WVU has pursued the idea for more than 10 years. Early studies began around 2015 and 2016, when scientists first noticed the elements sitting in the waste from abandoned coal operations. Today, the plant produces a few tonnes of elements like yttrium, dysprosium and terbium each year and is proving that the method can work on a practical scale.
“We continue to build momentum in our work to bring our research-derived IP around extracting rare earth elements from acid mine drainage into the marketplace,” said WVU Vice Provost Mark Gavin this month. “Improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the technology as well as exploring new feedstocks is why we launched the Rare Earth Elements Initiative.”
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Federal funding adds new energy
This surge of interest arrives at the same time as major government support. In July, the Department of Energy handed out 75 million dollars to five groups that recover rare earth elements and other vital materials from coal waste.
The winners include the University of North Dakota, Valor Metals, Core Natural Resources Inc (NYSE: CNR) (FRA: C9X0) unit CONSOL Innovations, American Resources Corp (NASDAQ: AREC) and Peabody Energy Corp (NYSE: BTU) (FRA: PBE). Each team builds pilot plants at existing industrial sites so they can turn waste into market-ready goods.
This month the DOE followed up with over half a billion for an assortment of broader critical minerals and rare earths projects. These efforts reach beyond coal and aim to recover useful materials from many kinds of mine and factory leftovers.
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