EBERVALE — A grant-funded program that evaluates methods for extracting rare earth materials from coal waste could fuel the coal industry for generations to come, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and U.S. Rep. Lou Barletta, R-11, Hazleton, said while touring Jeddo Coal Co. mining operations Thursday.
While touring a potential rare earth elements extraction site, an active anthracite mining operation near Stockton Mountain and reclaimed mine lands, Barletta and Perry touted the role that coal — and the rare metals found in it — could play in creating jobs and reducing America’s reliance on countries for rare metals that are used in U.S. defense systems and commercial electronics.
“This country’s future is wrapped around the men and women of this part of the country,” Perry said from a podium stationed near a massive dragline excavator. “For too long, coal in this country is reviled. It’s time coal in this country is revived.”
Rare earth metals are used in commercial electronics, such as cellphones, electric cars and computers, as well as fighter jets.
The tour was arranged a few months after Barletta announced that he helped secure a $1 million grant that the U.S. Department of Energy awarded to a consortium that is evaluating rare earth processing methods for feedstock provided by Jeddo Coal Co.
Penn State University, Texas Minerals Resources Corp., Indenture Renewables and K Technologies are involved in the local consortium. It will compete against similar projects for a $20 million grant that the Energy Department will award to the group that shows the most potential for extracting the rare metals economically.
Barletta called the rare earth metal initiative a “new chapter” and said the future for the industry looks bright with an estimated 300 to 500 years of inventories projected in the Northeast.
“This is not our grandfather’s coal,” Barletta said. “This is used for manufacturing steel and, now, we are finding these rare earth materials that we are buying from China. (A consortium involving) Penn State is seeing how we can extract these rare earth elements that are nowhere else, right here.”
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