The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
DOE-funded research results from Central Appalachia Metal Tech News - August 10, 2023
Wise, Virginia, was once a booming town that served as the hub of eight coal camps. DOE is funding programs that may revitalize old Appalachia coal mining towns while providing domestic sources of rare earths and other critical minerals.
Coal seams, ash, and other materials were studied across Central Appalachia to determine critical mineral availability. Taking advantage of preexisting coal mining infrastructure would give the industry a leg up in extracting and processing.
U.S. policymakers have become increasingly concerned about overreliance on China for the minerals and metals essential to clean energy technologies.
Today China controls roughly one-third of the global market for critical minerals and rare earth elements, and several countries, including Australia, are making strides toward developing robust domestic resource extraction and processing industries of their own in response.
To take advantage of recent federal tax credits for electric vehicles from legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act, companies need more American-made components and materials, recycled or raw. To aid in the process, a recent executive order by President Joe Biden aims to create a domestic supply chain for critical minerals.
"We can see that a lot of these existing conditions in the global market and the region support both the establishment and growth of the rare earth metal industry, as well as the industries supporting it," said Matt Scheffel, an economist with Chmura Economics. "If we are able to target and provide economic support for a number of these industries it will allow for side-by-side growth for these industries and the rare earth metal industry to help keep job opportunities within the region."
After almost two years of study, researchers have presented optimistic results on Central Appalachia's potential to develop industries around the extraction and processing of rare earth elements and other critical minerals.
Central Appalachia covers a region that includes parts of Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Kentucky, where critical minerals and rare earth elements have been identified in the coal, as well as rock.
Researchers from the Evolve Central Appalachia (Evolve CAPP) project funded by the U.S. Department of Energy have been working since 2021 to determine the historically coal-dependent area's potential.
To identify concentrations of critical minerals and rare earth elements, researchers reviewed state and federal mining permits, information from the National Energy Technical Lab, U.S. Geological Survey, and utility records on coal ash, a granular waste product of coal burning.
Because pollution control technologies already sequester coal ash in a crushed state, critical minerals and rare earth elements found within are easier to access.
Researchers ultimately found 10 coal seams in Southwest Virginia with significant amounts of critical minerals, with concentrations ranging widely from 8.4 to 165.7 parts per million. Comparatively, the highest concentrations of critical minerals in seams throughout Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia reached 250 ppm.
Danny Gray of Gray Energy Technologies found that coal ash in the region had an average concentration of critical minerals and rare earth elements that were 500 parts per million.
"We know that you got to handle more than 2,000 tons in order to get more than 1 ton," Gray said. "That presents material handling challenges."
Due to the region's coal mining history, most of the technology, transportation and other infrastructure needed for extraction and processing these resources is already in place but will, at the very least, require mine operators to learn a few new skills. The challenge for workers accustomed to coal mine extraction processes will be learning how to handle multiple new materials.
Sophisticated drills can sense when materials other than coal are being cut, so it can hit "areas that are of the highest value for us, so you're taking less material but you're taking more valuable less material," said Steve Schafrik, director of graduate studies in mining engineering at the University of Kentucky.
Magnetic separation is yet another way to access resources, a greener low-cost alternative in its infancy, according to Wencai Zhang, assistant professor of the Department of Mining and Minerals Engineering at Virginia Tech.
Chemical approaches such as sulfuric acid can be used to separate elements and minerals from coal or coal byproducts. However, physically separated mineral concentrations often must be further dissolved in chemicals to access the critical minerals and rare earth elements.
"If you want to achieve individually separated rare earths, you must combine technologies," Zhang said.
The best method is source-sink matching, an approach that designates raw material, tailings, and carbon storage as close to processing sites as possible to decrease logistic concerns and carbon-heavy transportation costs.
Processing plants could draw on coal ash ponds as water sources to avoid drawing on raw or potable resources. Meanwhile, renewable options are growing to meet the energy supply demands of processing, but many mining operations still rely on natural gas.
"The key takeaway here is the Central App region has a lot of the key building blocks that are necessary for future processing facilities," said Brian Hill of Crescent Resource Innovation, a financial consultant for the U.S. Department of Energy.
The mining industry in the U.S. has been suffering from shrinking classes, slowing down workforce development in a time when it needs to be growing exponentially along with demand. Central Appalachia's labor market participation rate is 49%, compared to 68% for the nation.
The 24 community colleges surveyed in the region have programs in place to support the extraction and processing industries, offering degrees and certifications in relevant electrical, welding, diesel, industrial and mechanical tech.
While the coal, oil and power sectors are well-paid and currently employ roughly 22,000 people, the number of workers is projected to drop more than 3% every year for the next 10 years.
"When you compare all of these numbers to the U.S. numbers, we're extremely low. So, we got some work to do," said Vickie Ratliff, interim vice president of Mountain Empire Community College in Big Stone Gap.
The U.S. needs raw materials, infrastructure and workforces to make a homegrown critical minerals industry a reality. All are within reach if focus and funds continue where they are needed most – communities built up around fossil fuel industries have the framework and experience already in place in order to tackle the energy transition on the winning side.
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