Perry Talks Up Rare Earth Minerals at Pennsylvania Coal Mine

Rare Earth Deposits & Mining / Rare Earth Exploration, Mining, Processing, & Uses

Date posted: 09/28/17

Stephen Lee Extracting rare earth minerals from coal could revive the flagging sector and wean the U.S. off Chinese mineral providers, Energy Secretary Rick Perry said. “I don't think we can overstate how important the development of rare earth minerals out of our anthracite coal is, and the potential that it's going to have,” Perry said Sept. 28, standing in the shadow of an 8,000-ton, 50-year old excavating machine at the Jeddo Coal Mine in Hazleton, Pa. “The future of the world, I would suggest to you, is brighter because of American ingenuity and American innovation, if we don't stifle it with overtaxing it, overregulating it,” the former Texas governor said. Rare earth elements are used to make products such as cell phones, computers, wind turbines, and medical devices. The U.S. has no active rare earth mines, however, instead importing almost all of its supply from China. The elements can be found in coal and coal waste, but no commercial-scale means of pulling them out of coal has yet been developed. Up to the Private Sector Dan McGroarty, who sits on the board of Texas Mineral Resources Corp., applauded Perry's commitment to the research. “Now it falls to innovators in the private sector,” McGroarty told Bloomberg BNA. “We know the rare earths are there. Can we separate them from the rest of the material? There's 17 of them, and each one's got a different use and a different value. All that's extremely difficult.” The Jeddo mine was idle at the time of Perry's visit due to the sluggish coal market, James Pagnotti, Jeddo's president, said. But if rare earth mineral extraction can be scaled up, the mine could roar back to life, Pagnotti said, although he couldn't estimate how many jobs would be created because the work is still in its infancy.