The Occurrence and Concentration of Rare Earth Elements in Acid Mine Drainage and Treatment Byproducts. Part 2: Regional Survey of Northern and Central Appalachian Coal Basins

Vass, Christopher R.; Noble, Aaron; Ziemkiewicz, Paul F.

doi:10.1007/s42461-019-00112-9

Title: The Occurrence and Concentration of Rare Earth Elements in Acid Mine Drainage and Treatment Byproducts. Part 2: Regional Survey of Northern and Central Appalachian Coal Basins

Journal Article · 01 October 2019 · Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-019-00112-9 · OSTI ID:1577122

^[1]; Noble, Aaron ^[2]; Ziemkiewicz, Paul F. ^[3]

West Virginia Water Research Inst., Morgantown, WV (United States); WVWRI
Virginia Polytechnic Inst. and State Univ. (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA (United States). Virginia Tech Mining and Minerals Engineering
West Virginia Water Research Inst., Morgantown, WV (United States)

Many modern industries rely on rare earth elements (REEs) to produce products that are essential to both civil and defense applications. In a prior study (Vass et al., 2019), the authors showed that REE grades in acid mine drainage (AMD) and associated byproduct precipitates from AMD treatment (AMDp) warrant evaluation as a feedstock for REE production. The current work extends that effort through a broad survey of 141 AMD treatment sites in Northern and Central Appalachia. In this study, 185 raw AMD and 623 AMDp field samples were obtained and analyzed to assess the REE and major metal concentrations. Results show that an average of 282 μg/L and 724 g/tonne of REEs occur in AMD and AMDp respectively. Additionally, both basins contained similar distributions of REEs, and these distributions tended to favor heavy and critical REEs when compared with traditional REE ore deposits. Geospatial analysis identified a total resource of 340 tonnes stored at the 141 sites sampled in this study. While this analysis did not quantify the basin-wide REE inventory, it does indicate the impact that processing cut-off grades will have on the overall AMDp resource base.

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Research Organization:: West Virginia Water Research Inst., Morgantown, WV (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

Grant/Contract Number:: FE0026927

OSTI ID:: 1577122

Journal Information:: Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, Journal Name: Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 36; ISSN 2524-3462

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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