Mineral Sustainability

Mineral Sustainability: NETL work for FECM’s Mineral Sustainability Program seeks to ensure a secure domestic supply of critical minerals and materials using unconventional and secondary sources, extract the full economic value from carbon ore, and remediate legacy impacts associated with past extraction and utilization practices.

This program includes efforts in the areas of Critical Minerals & Materials and Carbon Ore Processing:

• Critical Minerals & Materials - Validates the technical and economic feasibility of domestic small pilot-scale facilities to produce high purity critical minerals and materials from carbon ore and coal-based resources. A major goal is to produce 1-3 tonnes/day of high purity mixed rare earth oxides/salts in domestic engineering prototype facilities using coal-based and alternate resources as feedstock materials.
• Carbon Ore Processing - Focuses on utilizing materials associated with past extraction and utilization practices to produce valuable products such as carbon fibers and building materials.