{"id":671203,"date":"2026-09-03T23:00:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T23:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671203\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T23:00:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T23:00:13","slug":"the-us-could-have-a-100-billion-stash-of-rare-earth-elements-hiding-in-coal-waste-sciencealert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/671203\/","title":{"rendered":"The US Could Have a $100 Billion Stash of Rare Earth Elements \u2013 Hiding in Coal Waste : ScienceAlert"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world runs on metals, and not (just) the kind produced by long-haired musicians<\/a> with monochromatic wardrobes.<\/p>\n

Our modern technologies, industries, and infrastructure would not be possible without 17 invaluable metals known as rare earth elements<\/a> (REEs), which are used in computers, planes, cars, and more.<\/p>\n

Unfaithful to their name, REEs aren’t that rare<\/a>, but expensive and difficult to extract in useful forms.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But as scientists are discovering, piles of discarded waste material left over from spent fossil fuels contain vast quantities of REEs that could be a homegrown source of these metals. <\/p>\n

REEs are unevenly distributed across Earth, with Chinese mines producing around 70 percent of REEs and accounting for about 90 percent<\/a> of global heavy rare earth processing, creating a magnet monopoly. <\/a><\/p>\n

REEs are vital for the clean energy transition, needed in solar panels, batteries, and wind turbine motors, as well as for medical and defense technologies \u2013 one F-35 fighter jet contains around 400 kilograms<\/a> (900 pounds) of REEs, for example. <\/p>\n

\"\"A microscopic view of a typical rock rich in REEs. (University of Cambridge)<\/a><\/p>\n

Many countries see acquiring an independent REE supply chain as integral<\/a> to national security, technological sustainability, economic stability, and energy independence. It would also help bring about a more circular materials economy. <\/p>\n

Fortunately, there appear to be lots of REEs just ‘sitting around’, locked away in spent fossil fuel waste. <\/p>\n

In fact, a 2024 study<\/a> led by geoscientists at the University of Texas at Austin calculated that coal ash from coal-fired power stations in the US may contain nearly US$100 billion in feasibly extractable REEs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Currently, imports from China comprise about 70 percent<\/a> of the US’ REE supply. The US has only one major operational REE mine in California, which produces 16 percent<\/a> of the global rare earth supply, and it lacks national processing capabilities.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Production of rare earth oxides, which are REEs mixed with oxygen, per country since 1985. (Agrawal & Ragauskas, J. Environ. Manage., 2025)<\/a><\/p>\n

Intriguingly, the chalky coal ash is a potential powerhouse: a byproduct of burning coal, itself made possible only by hundreds of millions of years of extreme heat and pressure squeezing long-dead ancient plants<\/a> within Earth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Once most of coal’s mass and combustible elements have been burned off, the REE concentration in the resulting ash is up to 10 times higher<\/a> than in unburned coal, offering an already-unearthed source of critical materials. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The estimated 11 million US tons of REEs<\/a> in accessible coal ash is almost eight times<\/a> the amount that the US has in domestic reserves.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So a global race is on to develop practical extraction methods. <\/p>\n

At Monash University in Australia, engineers are using environmentally benign acids to remove REEs from coal ash<\/a>, reporting 90 percent recovery<\/a> of all 17 elements in pilot demonstrations.<\/p>\n

“The significance of this work lies in its dual impact: reducing environmental waste while securing domestic supply of critical minerals,” explains<\/a> Monash chemical engineer Sankar Bhattacharya.<\/p>\n

This work is also versatile. The Monash researchers say<\/a> their method, if scaled and commercialized, could be used on other common waste streams, including electronic waste<\/a> as well as tailings<\/a>, the material left over after valuable metals have been removed from mined ore. <\/p>\n

“We don’t have to dig up new mines. We can use something that’s already processed and just sitting in landfill,” Bennet Thomas, a sustainable resource recovery engineer at Monash, told AAP<\/a>, adding that increased REE self-reliance can therefore address a “national risk”. <\/p>\n

\"\"Coal ash operations in a landfill in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. (Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection)<\/a><\/p>\n

A paper published in 2025 in the Journal of Environmental Management<\/a> similarly highlights the untapped potential of coal ash. <\/p>\n

Engineers Ruchi Agrawal and Arthur Ragauskas calculated that globally, coal ash could yield more than 300,000 US tons (272,000 metric tons) of REEs each year, “far exceeding global demand”.<\/p>\n

Yet conventional extraction methods have many drawbacks, including low yields and toxic post-processing waste.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Researchers at Northeastern University\u00a0are working on the problem<\/a>, boosting yields from conventional extraction methods three-fold by pretreating coal tailings. <\/p>\n

Scientists are exploring other options, too. <\/p>\n

These include ‘green’ leaching solutions using various substances like acids; electrochemical extraction methods; and nature-based solutions<\/a> like microbe-made metabolites that precipitate the REEs from waste in an eco-friendly fashion. <\/p>\n

Additionally, phytomining<\/a> could use “hyperaccumulator plants” that collect REEs in their tissues, putting these natural wonders to work for us \u2013 because other than sequestering carbon<\/a>, producing oxygen, cleaning the air, cooling cities<\/a>, beautifying our world, and providing food<\/a> and building materials<\/a>, what have plants done for us lately?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A graphical summary of a phytomining process. (Agrawal & Ragauskas, J. Environ. Manage., 2025)<\/a><\/p>\n

However, each method has its pros and cons, primarily related to environmental sustainability, resource requirements, scalability, and complexity. <\/p>\n

Extraction will need to hit a sweet spot to yield high-quality REEs in a cost-effective, energy-efficient way.<\/p>\n

Time will tell if any of these methods will be successful at scale. <\/p>\n

The research was published in the Journal of Coal Science & Technology<\/a> and the Journal of Environmental Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This article was fact-checked by Clare Watson<\/a> and edited by Clare Watson<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world runs on metals, and not (just) the kind produced by long-haired musicians with monochromatic wardrobes. Our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":671204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[74],"tags":[18,19,17,808,82],"class_list":["post-671203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-msft-content","tag-technology"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117209599281189700","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=671203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/671204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}