> Most of the work around rare earth element extraction is still in the research phase.
Meaning it could be decades before there is any meaningful production for this source. Or "never, because it turned out that the cost of extracting 'em from coal ash was 10X higher".
From a minerals processing background this seems unlikely - the processing neccesary to extract REE's of interest from various conglomerates is understood and already in play.
The variation of interest with coal ash is using REE profits to offset the costs of dealing with the coal ash specifics .. which need to be dealt with in any case in order to ensure purity of water supplies, etc.
The US DoE put up ~ $18 million (US) in April 2024 to develop pilots which are already running that will provide feedback for tuning second generation circuits.
Meaning it could be decades before there is any meaningful production for this source. Or "never, because it turned out that the cost of extracting 'em from coal ash was 10X higher".