Appalachian Coal Rich in Rare Earth Elements

Industrial Metals

Phys.org reported that coal from the Appalachian mountains in the United States could be rich in rare earth elements. As quoted in the publication: In the wake of a 2014 coal ash spill into North Carolina’s Dan River from a ruptured Duke Energy drainage pipe, the question of what to do with the nation’s aging …

Phys.org reported that coal from the Appalachian mountains in the United States could be rich in rare earth elements.
As quoted in the publication:

In the wake of a 2014 coal ash spill into North Carolina’s Dan River from a ruptured Duke Energy drainage pipe, the question of what to do with the nation’s aging retention ponds and future coal ash waste has been a highly contested topic.
One particularly entrepreneurial idea is to extract so-called “critical” rare earth elements such as neodymium, europium, terbium, dysprosium, yttrium and erbium from the burned coal. The Department of Energy has identified these globally scarce metals as a priority for their uses in clean energy and other emerging technologies. But exactly how much of these elements are contained in different sources of coal ash in the U.S. had never been explored.