The plan to turn coal country into a rare earth powerhouse

Image: Grist / Alberto Masnovo / VICTOR HABBICK VISIONS / Getty Images. Article by Maddie Stone. Grist – May 26, 2021.

With plans for a Made-in-America renewable energy transformation, Biden administration ramps up efforts to extract rare earth minerals from coal waste.

At an abandoned coal mine just outside the city of Gillette, Wyoming, construction crews are getting ready to break ground on a 10,000-square-foot building that will house state-of-the-art laboratories and manufacturing plants. Among the projects at the facility, known as the Wyoming Innovation Center, will be a pilot plant that aims to takes coal ash — the sooty, toxic waste left behind after coal is burned for energy — and use it to extract rare earths, elements that play an essential role in everything from cell phones and LED screens to wind turbines and electric cars.  […]

Click here to view original web page at grist.org