News Item:
U.S. Department of Energy Partners with Inventure to Recover Rare Earth Elements from Coal Mining Waste
Tuscaloosa, Alabama – On June 9, 2017, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy announced the investment of $6.9 million in rare earth element (REE) research, with the goal of determining the economic feasibility of recovering REE from domestic coal and coal by-products. Inventure Renewables was named as one of the research grant recipients. The company and its grant partners including K-Technologies, Texas Mineral Resources, and Penn State University will receive $1 million to conduct laboratory testing and prepare a technical design for a pilot plant to produce salable REEs from coal-related materials from an eastern Pennsylvania anthracite coal mine.
REE, a series of 17 chemical elements found in the earth’s crust, are essential components of many technologies, spanning applications from electronics, computer and communication systems and transportation to health care and national defense. Growing demand for REEs has fostered interest in finding new, cost-effective ways for domestic REE recovery.
For more information about this innovative program, visit https://energy.gov/energygov/articles/doe-announces-69-million-research-rare-earth-elements-coal-and-coal-byproducts.
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Chris Santella, Steelhead Communications