by entities like the U. S. Department of Defense( DOD) and U. S. Department of Energy( DOE).
“ Yttrium, dysprosium and terbium are not currently produced in meaningful quantities in the U. S., so we’ re dependent on those coming from overseas,” Dunmead says.“ Disproportionately, they’ re critically important for defense and other technologies like electric vehicles. Yttrium is used in thermal barrier coatings inside modern jet engines and in crystals for laser optics. Without dysprosium and terbium, high-temperature magnets start to lose their strength, and that’ s not something you want happening in the propulsion system of a fighter aircraft.”
U. S. hard rock mining of rare earths is concentrated on light rare earth elements, which are also very important for magnets. According to Dunmead, a typical hard rock mining deposit of rare earth elements in the U. S. has just a fraction of a percent of heavies.
At A34, treated water flows clean again. Photo by Brian Persinger.
“ When MCM extracts rare earth elements from coal acid mine drainage, we’ ve got 45 % or 50 % of heavies in there,” Dunmead says.“ A lot of money goes into new hard rock mining, a lot into magnet manufacturing, but none of that addresses the problem of these three heavy rare earth elements. That’ s our niche.”
MCM’ s story began in 2015 with a group of WVU researchers that developed a technique for decontaminating acid mine drainage and saw potential for converting an environmental remediation problem into a highvalue resource.
With the DOE and the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection behind them, the researchers developed A34, a Mount Storm pilot facility that would eventually convince Dunmead that their technique worked.
At the urging of the DOD, they went to Montana and demonstrated that the technique wasn’ t limited to runoff from coal mining but could extract heavy rare earth elements from hard rock acid mine drainage, too.
With the support of the WVU Office of Innovation and Commercialization, they realized the research was ready to make the leap from the lab to the real world.
Retired Major General James Hoyer, a member of the MCM board of directors and former vice president of economic innovation at WVU, says that decision was a great example of taking applied research and spinning it into economic opportunity.
“ We needed to stand up a private-sector entity to commercialize this, and that’ s how MCM was born,” Hoyer says.
In Hoyer’ s eyes, the creation of MCM marks a shift in how WVU approaches the commercialization of research discoveries.
“ The launch of MCM has changed the paradigm of how WVU leverages its land-grant mission and how the university spins off important intellectual property for the greater good of the state,” he says.“ West Virginia must grow its economy, and WVU is helping make that happen more efficiently, more effectively and in a completely different construct than ever done before.” Dunmead echoes this statement.“ What I saw at the A34 pilot facility gave me the confidence this isn’ t a science project,” he says.“ This isn’ t a lab experiment. This works, and it’ s time to deploy it commercially.”
A34 clarifiers restoring water and recovering critical minerals. Photo by Brian Persinger.
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