Business In coal country, a new chance to clean up a toxic legacy Waste from abandoned and bankrupt mines has contaminated more than 12,000 miles of waterways. Rare earths are essential to power clean energy products such as wind turbines and electric vehicles. To extract rare earths from these tanks, researchers then adjust the pH level to target rare earths instead of the general soup of heavy metals. Other researchers are trying to develop technology to mine solid coal waste for rare earths. But moving from cost savings to profitability from coal waste is still a big leap.

Source: Washington Post May 19, 2022 18:48 UTC