The U.S. Energy Dept. is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into first-of-a-kind demonstration projects in two states to extract and process rare earth elements and critical minerals from coal and lignite mining waste at active and former mines, and also Into reuse of U.S. mine waste sites for clean energy projects.
The agency said April 4 it will invest $466 million from the 2021 federal infrastructure law into technology development—with $450 million earmarked over five years to support demonstration projects it said could repurpose 17,750 mine sites on 1.5-million acres across the U.S., and generate up to 90GW of clean energy.