The DOE-NETL Critical Minerals and Materials Program
is focused on extracting, separating and refining
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) & Critical Materials (CMs)
from unconventional and secondary resources such as coal,
coal-based resources, and other non-traditional feedstocks.
Rare earth elements (REEs) are essential
dual use materials that are incorporated into
many of today’s components...
...and are paving the way for
future technology innovation
and integration.
Rare Earth Elements and Critical Minerals
The Critical Minerals and Materials (CMM) Program portfolio consists of a diverse set of domestic feedstock materials that includes carbon ore, coal refuse, clay/shale over/under-burden, aqueous effluents as acid mine drainage (AMD), associated solids and precipitates resulting from AMD treatment, and power generation ash. Chemical analyses of these materials are publicly accessible in NETL’s CMM Energy Data eXchange (EDX) database.
Conventional and advanced extraction, separation, recovery, and purification process research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) is the underlying basis of NETL’s CMM Program.
Achievements have resulted in the design, construction, and operation of three first-of-a-kind, small pilot-scale facilities producing small quantities (e.g., approximately 100 g/day) of greater than 90% (greater than 900,000 parts per million [ppm]) high-purity mixed rare earth oxides/salts from coal-based resources using conventional physical beneficiation and hydrometallurgical (chemical separation) processes.
