Friday, June 6, 2025
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Terms & Conditions
Environmental Magazine
Advertisement
  • Home
  • News
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Recycling
  • Air
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Water
No Result
View All Result
Environmental Magazine
  • Home
  • News
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Recycling
  • Air
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Water
No Result
View All Result
Environmental Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home News

Can coal mines be tapped for rare earth elements?

May 22, 2024
in News
A A

Research led by the University of Utah has documented elevated concentrations of rare earth elements (REEs) in active coal mines rimming the Uinta coal belt of Colorado and Utah, suggesting a new avenue for sourcing these materials that play a crucial role in renewable energy and other high-tech systems.

“The model is: if you’re already moving rock, could you move a little more rock for resources towards energy transition?” said Lauren Birgenheier, an associate professor of geology and geophysics. “In those areas, we’re finding that the rare earth elements are concentrated in fine-grain shale units, the muddy shales that are above and below the coal seams.”

This research was conducted in partnership with the Utah Geological Survey and Colorado Geological Survey as part of the Department of Energy-funded Carbon Ore, Rare Earth and Critical Minerals project, or CORE-CM. The new findings will form the basis for a grant request of an additional $9.4 million in federal funding to continue the research.

While these metals are crucial for U.S. manufacturing, especially in high-end technologies, they are largely sourced from overseas.

“When we talk about them as ‘critical minerals,’ a lot of the criticality is related to the supply chain and the processing,” said Michael Free, a professor metallurgical engineering and the principal investigator on the DOE grant. “This project is designed around looking at some alternative unconventional domestic sources for these materials.”

The association between coal and REE deposits has been well documented elsewhere, but little data had been previously gathered or analyzed in Utah and Colorado’s coal fields.

“The goal of this phase-one project was to collect additional data to try and understand whether this was something worth pursuing in the West,” said study co-author Michael Vanden Berg, Energy and Minerals Program Manager at the Utah Geological Survey. “Is there rare earth element enrichment in these rocks that could provide some kind of byproduct or value added to the coal mining industry?”

Researchers analyzed 3,500 samples from 10 mines, four mine waste piles, seven stratigraphically complete cores, and even some coal ash piles near power plants.

“The coal itself is not enriched in rare earth elements,” Vanden Berg said. “There’s not going to be a byproduct from mining the coal, but for a company mining the coal seam, could they take a couple feet of the floor at the same time? Could they take a couple feet of the ceiling? Could there be potential there? That’s the direction that the data led us.”

The team deployed two different methods to record levels of rare earths, expressed in parts per million, or ppm, in the samples. One was a hand-held device for quick readings in the field, the other used Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry, or ICP-MS, in an on-campus lab.

“We’re mostly using this portable x-ray fluorescence device, which is an analysis gun that we hold to the rock for two minutes, and it only gives us five or six of the 17 rare earth elements,” Birgenheier said. If samples showed concentrations higher than 200 ppm, they ran a more complete analysis using the more costly mass spectrometry equipment.

The Department of Energy has set 300 ppm as the minimum concentration for rare earth mining to be potentially economically viable. But for the study, researchers deemed concentrations greater than 200 ppm to be considered “REE enriched.”

The study found the highest prevalence of such concentrations in coal-adjacent formations of siltstone and shale, while sandstone and the coal itself were mostly devoid of rare earths.

The team has analyzed 11,000 samples to date, far more than were used in the published study. Next steps include determining how much rare earth ore is present, likely to be done with colleagues at the University of Wyoming and New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology.

ShareTweetSharePinSendShare

Related Articles

News

MPs warn of dangerous delays and soaring costs at Sellafield

June 5, 2025
News

Circular copper recovery could bridge 3.6 MT supply gap, says McKinsey

June 4, 2025
News

Breakthrough geopolymer turns recycled glass and construction waste into a high-performance cement replacement

June 2, 2025
News

Thames Water receives £122.7m fine in reported sewage spills crackdown

May 28, 2025
News

Net zero report sets out path to cut carbon and costs for small firms

May 28, 2025
News

Scotland can reach Net Zero by 2045 but needs to step up the pace, says CCC

May 27, 2025

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recommended

UN Secretary-General Says the World Must Turbocharge the Fossil Fuel Phaseout

July 25, 2024

Camera-based study reveals methane leaks far worse than expected in New Mexico region

April 12, 2022

Don't miss it

Fossil Fuels

Trump Hastens ‘Drumbeat’ of Deferred Coal Plant Retirements

June 6, 2025
Fossil Fuels

The Estate of a Woman Who Died in the 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Dome Sues Big Oil for Wrongful Death

June 5, 2025
Fossil Fuels

Sinking Homes, Climate Damage, Explosion Risks: New Government Review Outlines the Costs of One Mine Expansion

June 5, 2025
Activism

 Global Scientific Community Urges World Leaders to Transform Research Into Policy Ahead of UN Ocean Conference

June 5, 2025
Energy

What Does the ‘Big Beautiful’ Debate Tell Us About the Politics of the IRA?

June 5, 2025
Activism

Rich Countries’ Energy Transitions Threaten Indigenous Peoples and the Environment

June 5, 2025
Environmental Magazine

Environmental Magazine, Latest News, Opinions, Analysis Environmental Magazine. Follow us for more news about Enviroment and climate change from all around the world.

Learn more

Sections

  • Activism
  • Air
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Fossil Fuels
  • News
  • Uncategorized
  • Water

Topics

Activism Air Climate Change Energy Fossil Fuels News Uncategorized Water

Recent News

Trump Hastens ‘Drumbeat’ of Deferred Coal Plant Retirements

June 6, 2025

The Estate of a Woman Who Died in the 2021 Pacific Northwest Heat Dome Sues Big Oil for Wrongful Death

June 5, 2025

© 2023 Environmental Magazine. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
  • Climate Change
  • Energy
  • Recycling
  • Air
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Water

© 2023 Environmental Magazine. All rights reserved.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.