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(5) stories found containing 'acid mine drainage may offer rare earths'


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  • Massive earthen dam holds back red mud tailings at aluminum mine in Brazil.

    Turning waste into wealth in novel ways

    A.J. Roan, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 16, 2024

    Federal, private, academic, and public sectors collaborate to find critical minerals through unexpected methods. In the quest for a sustainable and secure supply of critical minerals, North America is turning to unconventional sources that promise to redefine the landscape of resource extraction. As the drive toward a green economy intensifies, innovative methods are emerging to harvest essential minerals through atypical means. These efforts, bolstered by significant...

  • A satellite view of a coal ash landfill in Pennsylvania.

    Outside-the-box critical mineral sources

    A.J. Roan, Data Mine North|Updated Sep 12, 2022

    Coal ash, acid drainage, and tailings for future green economy As the world continues to prime itself for the global energy shift, academia, governments and the private sector are scrambling to extract the valuable minerals and metals necessary to power the low-carbon renewable future – resulting in some truly innovative and unconventional methods. In addition to the rare earths, cobalt, lithium, and other technology metals that capture headline attention, this list often miss...

  • acid mine drainage mining environment rare earth ree source

    Acid mine drainage may offer rare earths

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 10, 2022

    Penn State scientists have developed a process that could transform acid mine drainage from an environmental liability that is costly to an asset that produces rare earths and other valuable minerals. "We are currently incurring costs just to treat the water, and in many cases, we are not even collecting all these minerals," said Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering at Penn State. "Now we are able to turn what had been considered a waste product into a v...

  • Scientists look to coal for REE solution

    Rose Ragsdale, For Metal Tech News|Updated Jul 2, 2022

    As security concerns mount over the nearly total reliance of the United States on foreign sources of rare earth elements, mostly from China, researchers in public and private laboratories across the country are aggressively searching for ways to spur domestic production of these critical minerals in the face of rapidly growing global demand. Rare earths, which in reality are plentiful in natural settings, can be found most everywhere. But the prohibitive financial and environm...

  • Pennsylvania mining waste lithium Penn State Critical Minerals Alliances

    Historic mining for future battery metals

    Shane Lasley, Metal Tech News|Updated Dec 28, 2021

    Pennsylvanian coal helped to fuel America's Industrial Revolution, and mines in the Keystone State have since provided a domestic source of iron ore, cobalt, nickel, and various other metals. Now, researchers at Pennsylvania State University have identified a potential motherlode of battery metals to feed into America's EV Revolution in waste left behind by more than two centuries of mining in the commonwealth. "Preliminary estimates indicate that waste left by coal mining...