UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State’s Center for Critical Minerals will receive $2.1 million in federal funding to design, build and test a modular pilot-scale research and development unit intended to recover vital rare earth elements and other critical minerals from Pennsylvania streams and other environmental sources.  

These minerals are prevalent in essential components of everyday life, including batteries, cellphones, automobiles, appliances and electronic devices. Critical minerals also play a central role in defense and homeland security applications, making them vital to national security and domestic economic growth.  
 
Funding for the pilot system was supported by U.S. Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (R-Pa.), U.S. Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson (R-Pa.) and U.S. Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.).  

“I secured this community project funding for Penn State because this cutting-edge project to extract critical minerals from acid mine drainage presents Pennsylvania with a rare opportunity to assume national leadership in an industry growing more important by the day,” said Casey. “Thanks to $2.1 million from the fiscal year 2023 spending bill, Penn State can move forward with innovative research that could help grow our economy, protect our environment, and safeguard our national security.” 

The pilot system will help extract these much sought-after resources, provide environmental benefits, and show the viability of a full-scale plant to help Pennsylvania become a leader in this burgeoning industry.  

“This endeavor would produce the critical minerals necessary to end our dependence on Chinese and other foreign-sourced materials, thereby shoring up our national security,” said Reschenthaler. “Further, the project would have environmental benefits, including remediation of acid mine drainage, reclamation of abandoned mine lands, and reclamation of mineral processing and metallurgical waste dumps.” 

Pennsylvania is in a unique position to leverage its considerable unconventional and secondary sources from coal and other energy-based waste to help create a diverse and resilient domestic critical mineral supply that supports the creation of new jobs, spurs industry and private investment, and advances the development of an independent energy future. 

“This project demonstrates the power of industry-university partnerships in addressing some of the most challenging problems facing society, and in this case, represents a win-win-win situation for the environment, for supplying critical minerals, and for job creation,” said Lee Kump, the John Leone Dean of Penn State's College of Earth Mineral Sciences. “Our ability to advance these efforts is directly the result of strong support from Reps. Reschenthaler and Thompson and Sen. Casey.” 

National resource impact  

The United States and the world have experienced exponential growth in critical minerals for uses ranging from sustainable energy and national defense to modern electronic and medical applications. 

Demand for these minerals is expected to grow in the next 10 years. According to the United States Geological Survey, only 1% of the world’s rare earth element reserves are in the United States, which forces the U.S. to turn to waste sources, such as the byproducts from other primary production operations.  
 
Such byproducts, including acid mine drainage, are rich in critical minerals. Coal and its waste products will therefore play a crucial role in providing a secondary source of critical minerals. A recent study by researchers in Penn State's Center for Critical Minerals revealed that Pennsylvania streams originating from abandoned mines, and the refuse piles of the lower Kittanning coal seam, contain the most sought after heavy rare earth elements.  

“Abandoned mine drainage is one of Pennsylvania's largest sources of stream impairment,” said Sarma Pisupati, professor of energy and mineral engineering and director of the Center for Critical Minerals at Penn State. “This funding to build a pilot-scale facility at Penn State to demonstrate the feasibility of extracting rare earth and other critical minerals from acid mine drainage will generate vital information and data for robust techno-economic analysis and scaling up to a full-scale plant.” 

The novel process developed by Penn State recovers these critical minerals from Pennsylvania streams impacted by water runoff flowing from abandoned coal mines while at the same time providing an environmental benefit by treating the streams and byproducts.  

“The Penn State Center for Critical Minerals is uniquely positioned to help our nation achieve critical minerals independence with expertise to address issues posed at all steps of the critical minerals pipeline,” said Thompson in a letter of support for the funding. 

Practical outputs 

The unit located at the Center for Critical Minerals laboratories in the Energy Institute at University Park will process 1,000 gallons of liquid sludge per day from an acid mine drainage treatment site currently managed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.  

"Through this funding, this facility would both demonstrate technology for cleaning the environment while reducing import dependence and providing mineral and national security,” said Pisupati.    

Sludge from a site in Clearfield County will be used to recover iron, aluminum and rare earth element concentrate. Further processing using a proprietary method will be done to extract cobalt and manganese from the stream to allow the discharge water to meet environmental regulations.  

Penn State will conduct the research and development in collaboration with local mining companies, county commissioners' offices, state watershed managers, commercial project developers, and local community development organizations.  

About Penn State’s Center for Critical Minerals  

The Center for Critical Minerals combines Penn State's expertise across several colleges in strategic partnership with industrial partners to develop the fundamental science and technology to harness domestic mineral sources. The center builds on Penn State's established interdisciplinary capabilities to make the University the premier technical and research support partner for companies developing commercial critical materials projects. The Center for Critical Minerals draws on Penn State's existing expertise and capabilities to further critical mineral research and technology with industry partners. Faculty, facilities and students within the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences, and other Penn State colleges, collaborate across disciplines.