Rare-earths targeted in retired coal mines
US researchers aim to secure critical materials from acid mine drainage.
Treated acid mine drainage flows through a weir at the A34 facility, where iron has been removed in preparation for the next stage of processing - producing rare earth-enriched pre-concentrate and clean water for environmental discharge
© West Virginia UniversityScientists at West Virginia University have launched a start-up to commercialise and scale-up operations at the A34 Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) Processing Facility in Mount Storm.
This is reported to be the first integrated, pilot-scale, rare-earth recovery facility in the US that exploits acid mine drainage at coal sites.
The firm Mission Critical Materials fits into the university’s broader Rare Earth Elements Initiative, which aims to bring together researchers to explore a growing range of feedstocks. These include rare-earth-enriched concentrates from hard rock and legacy mining pollution.
Vice Provost Mark Gavin says, ‘The same AMD process has now been shown to work on hard-rock mine drainage from old metal mines.’
Researchers are also lab testing methods for different feedstocks such as red mud, e-waste and mine tailings.
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