Perhaps a PYR oppurtunity with Plasma Capabilities ! The possibility of recycling coal for rare earth also raises concerns, says Lisa Evans, the Boston-based senior counsel for Earthjustice and a specialist in hazardous waste law. “How do you extract [rare earth] in a way that doesn’t create more of an environmental hazard, that doesn’t endanger workers and that doesn’t leave toxic waste for the community? All these questions have to be answered,” Evans says.
Pursuing such answers is mineral-processing engineer and assistant professor Maria Holuszko, co-founder of the Urban Mining Innovation Centre at the University of British Columbia. Holuszko is one of the few researchers in Canada working to identify rare-earth sources in existing coal waste in tailings ponds and on mine sites. She is also developing extraction methods.
Rare-earth recovery from coal waste is complex and includes the use of acids. “We try to minimize the impact on the environment, but generally these processes are energy intensive, using solvent extraction technologies that are not environmentally friendly,” says Holuszko.
Could rare earth minerals give coal country a second life? | Corporate Knights