MP Materials gets $3-million award for project to extract rare earths from coal by-products
2021-05-18 14:45:53 [Print]
MP Materials has received a $3-million award from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to complete a feasibility study, working with the University of Kentucky (UK), on a system to produce rare earth oxides, metals, and other critical materials recovered from coal by-products.
MP Materials owns and operates Mountain Pass, the only integrated rare earth mining and processing site in North America.
Pursuant to this DOE-funded project, MP Materials and UK will advance their design for a modular system to concentrate coal by-product locally, in Kentucky. The concentrate will then be delivered to Mountain Pass, California, where MP Materials will leverage its existing capabilities to refine and extract the individual rare earth elements from concentrate before reducing them to metal.
The collaboration seeks to minimize the system's capital and operating costs, as well as its environmental footprint, while maximizing economic opportunities for coal communities.
MP Materials owns and operates Mountain Pass, the only integrated rare earth mining and processing site in North America.
Pursuant to this DOE-funded project, MP Materials and UK will advance their design for a modular system to concentrate coal by-product locally, in Kentucky. The concentrate will then be delivered to Mountain Pass, California, where MP Materials will leverage its existing capabilities to refine and extract the individual rare earth elements from concentrate before reducing them to metal.
The collaboration seeks to minimize the system's capital and operating costs, as well as its environmental footprint, while maximizing economic opportunities for coal communities.
