CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Commissioners on Tuesday heard about the exploration of rare earth elements and other critical minerals and the potential that lies in Clearfield County.
Penn State’s Center for Critical Minerals will receive $2.1 million in federal funding to develop and test a modular pilot-scale research and development unit intended to recover vital rare earth elements and other critical minerals from Pennsylvania streams and other environmental sources.
These minerals are commonly found in many components of everyday life from batteries and cellular phones to electronics, appliances, automobiles and so on, said Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering and director of the Center for Critical Minerals at Penn State.
These critical minerals also have a major role in defense and homeland security applications, making them vital to national security and domestic economic growth, he noted.
The pilot system will help extract these much sought-after resources, provide environmental benefits and show the viability of a full-scale plant to help Pennsylvania become a leader in this growing industry, said Pisupati.
Additionally, it would produce the critical minerals necessary to end U.S. dependence on the Chinese and other foreign-sourced materials, he said, and in turn heighten national security
The project would have environmental benefits, he said, like remediation of acid mine drainage, reclamation of abandoned mine lands and reclamation of mineral processing, etc.
And, according to Pisupati, Pennsylvania finds itself in a very unique position to leverage its considerable sources from coal and other energy-based waste.
As it helps create a domestic critical mineral supply, the result will be: creation of new jobs, opportunity for industry and private investment and advancement towards an independent energy future, he said.
The world—including the United States—has experienced exponential growth in critical minerals for uses ranging from sustainable energy and national defense to modern electronic and medical applications.
Demand for these minerals is expected to grow in the next 10 years, and according to the U.S. Geological Survey, only 1 percent of the world’s rare earth element reserves are in the United States.
This forces the United States to turn to waste sources, such as the byproducts from other primary production operations. Such byproducts, including acid mine drainage, are rich in critical minerals.
Coal and its waste products will play a crucial role in providing a secondary source of critical minerals.
A recent Penn State study revealed that Pennsylvania streams originating from abandoned mines, and the refuse piles of the lower Kittanning coal seam, contain the most sought after heavy rare earth elements.
Abandoned mine drainage is one of Pennsylvania’s largest sources of stream impairment, said Pisupati.
This funding to build a pilot-scale facility at Penn State to demonstrate the feasibility of extracting rare earth and other critical minerals from acid mine drainage will generate vital information and data for use to develop a full-scale plant.
The process developed by Penn State recovers these critical minerals from Pennsylvania streams impacted by water runoff flowing from abandoned coal mines while at the same time providing an environmental benefit by treating the streams and byproducts, said Pisupati.
The unit, which will be located at the Center for Critical Minerals laboratories in the Energy Institute at University Park, will process 1,000 gallons of liquid sludge per day from an acid mine drainage treatment site currently managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, according to a previous report.
Sludge from a site in Clearfield County will be used to recover iron, aluminum and rare earth element concentrate, said Pisupati.
Further processing using a proprietary method will be done to extract cobalt and manganese from the stream to allow the discharge water to meet environmental regulations.
Penn State will conduct the research and development in collaboration with local mining companies, county commissioners’ offices, state watershed managers, commercial project developers and local community development organizations.
Currently, a proposal is under consideration to utilize the pilot system for the development of a full-scale plant to be on-site here in Clearfield County, said Pisupati.
