Mining, Amanda Stutt | January 14, 2022 | 11:52 am
Click here for full article
HG Ventures and American Rare Earth LLC are teaming up to scale up the recycling of batteries, magnets and e-waste with the goal of recovering and supplying critical minerals and rare earth metals to US and global markets.
They are aiming to use legacy tailings from coal mines in the vast Appalachia coal mining region of the eastern US to strip out rare earths and recycle them in a new facility being built in Noblesville, Indiana. “What we do is take big legacy assets and restructure and reposition them, to monetize the entire asset base focusing on infrastructure electrification,” Mark Jensen, CEO of American Resources
Mining rare earths, essential elements to realizing an electrified economy, can be challenging as materials needed are either not yet mined, or are latent, stranded, for example, in old coal mines – environmental legacy liabilities spread all over North America. “The concept of concentration is a big deal – going after the high-value concentrate — that’s the key driver,” he said. “The mining industry needs to do a better job of utilizing innovative technologies [as a way] of looking to clean up environmental liabilities.”