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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

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Abstract

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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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon the work supported by the U.S. Department of Energy under award number DE-FE0026444.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. West Virginia Water Research Institute, PO Box 6064, Morgantown, WV, 26506, USA

    Christopher R. Vass & Paul F. Ziemkiewicz

  2. Virginia Tech Mining and Minerals Engineering, Holden Hall 100, Virginia Tech, 445 Old Turner Street, Blacksburg, VA, 24061, USA

    Aaron Noble

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Vass, C.R., Noble, A. & Ziemkiewicz, P.F. 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. Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration 36, 917–929 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42461-019-00112-9

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