Duchesne reports that Texas Mineral Resources Corp. announced that is has signed a MOU with a privately held well-established Pennsylvania coal company to recover and produce scandium and rare-earth byproducts from coal ash and coal overburden. The name of the coal company is undisclosed. The North American industrial revolution started in Pennsylvania with the systematic adoption of oil as a source of energy in the second half of the 19th century with the emergence of Standard Oil. So it is fitting that the Pennsylvania coalfields should be viewed as a source of new material for clean tech. The extraction of rare earths, including scandium from ash is a hot button topic in the continuing quest to diversify rare earths sources. For example in 2015 the U.S. DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) has selected 10 projects to receive funding for research in support of the lab program on recovery of rare earths from coal and coal byproducts.
Ash from the combustion of coal is an abundant resource, making up to 20% of the weight of anthracite coal, a significant waste material. A recent study, among many, shows promises for the use of ash as a source of rare earths shows that the combustion of coal in power plants for energy generation concentrates non-volatile minerals in the ash by about ten times, to about 10,000 ppm (1%), which puts the concentration of rare earths in ash on par with some rare earth deposits. TMRC’s preliminary internal economic analysis for a modest start-up operation processing 300 tons of coal ash per day suggests CAPEX of approximately $17 million, inclusive of a 25% contingency. Assuming a recoverable grade of 45 ppm scandium content, potential estimated production of scandium oxide would approximate 7,500 kg per year. Using a current scandium oxide market price of $2,000 per kg could potentially result in pre-tax cash flow of approximately $10.3 million, after operating costs and royalty payments to the coal company. Read on
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