Funding from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda Will Develop More Affordable, Sustainable Production Processes, and Create Good-Paying Jobs Throughout the Nation, the U.S. Department of Energy yesterday announced $17.5 million for four projects that will help lower the costs and reduce the environmental impacts of the onshore production of rare earths and other critical minerals and materials from coal, coal wastes, and coal by-products.
The United States currently imports more than 80% of its rare earth elements, but rare earth elements naturally occur all around us, including in our domestic coal, coal wastes, and coal by-products, which comprise more than 250 billion tons of coal reserves, over 4 billion tons of waste coal, and about 2 billion tons of coal ash. DOE seeks to tap these secondary and unconventional resources to help build a domestic supply chain critical to the U.S. economy, clean energy, and national security.
Four projects were selected for negotiation to conduct advanced laboratory and bench-scale testing to improve the economic viability of rare earth element and critical minerals and materials separation and refining technologies, which also have the potential to help remediate legacy mining and energy wastes, even as they enable the recovery of urgently needed domestic minerals and the rebuilding of secure U.S. supply chains.