Rare earth materials are essential to the development of new technologies, from EV batteries to smartphones, and researchers are looking to expand their options for acquiring them in the face of supply chain uncertainty.
A report by The New York Times revealed that efforts to extract these precious materials from a closed mining operation called the Berkeley Pit in Butte, Montana, may help increase the domestic U.S. supply while also helping clean up a toxic mess that was left behind.
According to the outlet, the location is filled with 50 billion gallons of acid mine drainage, a highly toxic pollutant created when sulfur-bearing pyrite in rock is exposed to oxygen and water during the mining process.
While it's a large environmental issue for the area, it's also become a source of zinc, copper, rare earths, and other minerals that are increasingly desirable as China — one of the world's largest suppliers of rare earth materials — restricts exports due to recent tariffs.
"Water is the ore body of the 21st century," said Peter S. Fiske, director of the National Alliance for Water Innovation at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab in California, per the report.
"Technology now is allowing us to pick through the garbage piles of wastewater and pick out the high-value items."
Rare earth materials are classified as either heavy or light. The difference between them is that heavy ones have a higher atomic weight and are less common than light ones.
"One of the nice things about acid mine drainage is the concentrates we get are particularly enriched in heavy rare earths," Dr. Ziemkiewicz told The NYT.
"The light ones aren't as valuable."
The operation at the Berkeley Pit involves both remediation and the recovery of materials from wastewater, a practice that has been growing in popularity as rare earth demand is estimated to increase by as much as 600%, the report noted.
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Definitely 💯 This is good news for the environment, as mining operations have been known to negatively impact local communities and water supplies.
Rare earth supplies are considered a matter of national importance, and The NYT reported that the Butte project is awaiting a response from the Department of Defense regarding $75 million in funding to launch full-scale production at the site.
"We're turning a giant liability into something that's contributing to defense," said Mark Thompson, vice president for environmental affairs at Montana Resources, in the piece.
From old mines being converted into clean geothermal energy plants to rare earths being extracted from leftover coal ash, projects continue to make good use of waste materials while addressing environmental damage done in previous years.
New methods of extracting valuable materials from electronic waste are also helping to reduce the need for new mining projects, while keeping toxic waste out of the environment.
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