Highlights

• Virginia Tech leads a $10 million project to extract rare earth elements from:
  • Coal waste
  • Power plant byproducts
  • Abandoned mines across 11 states
• Project aims to:
  • Reduce U.S. dependence on China
  • Revitalize Appalachian economies
  • Support next-generation clean energy technologies
• Research raises critical questions about the U.S.'s ability to:
  • Translate mineral discovery into large-scale industrial production
  • Create economic opportunities

The U.S. is doubling down on domestic critical minerals, and Virginia Tech (opens in a new tab) just landed a $10 million shot in the arm to lead the charge in Appalachia. Funded by a $7.5 million Department of Energy grant (plus $2 million in private and state funding), the Expand Appalachia CORE-CM (opens in a new tab) project aims to unlock rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical minerals from unconventional sources—think coal waste, power plant byproducts, and abandoned mines. The goal? Reduce U.S. dependence on China, revitalize Appalachian economies, and fuel the next generation of EVs, solar panels, and semiconductors.

The team, led by Richard Bishop, is scaling up efforts from an earlier $2.71 million DOE project that assessed rare earths in Central Appalachia. Now, they’re covering 11 states, identifying mineral-rich sites, repurposing legacy infrastructure, and—at least in theory—bringing jobs to long-struggling coal communities.

Some Tough Questions

But here’s the real question: Will this actually move the needle? Yes, there’s plenty of hype around extracting rare earths from unconventional sources, but the U.S. has struggled to translate research into large-scale production. We’ve seen promising studies before, but where are the full-scale refining and separation plants to make these resources viable? China still dominates not just mining but the entire value chain, from refining to magnet production. Without serious downstream investments, does this research risk becoming another academic exercise with little real-world impact?

And let’s talk about funding—$10 million sounds like a big number, but in the world of critical mineral supply chains, it’s a drop in the bucket. To put it in perspective, China’s rare earth industry is backed by state-run enterprises with billions in subsidies. Will a piecemeal, regional approach be enough to counter that?

Even if the project identifies promising deposits, who’s stepping up to process and refine them? The U.S. still lacks large-scale refining capacity, and there’s little mention of how this research will feed into a broader industrial strategy.  Rare Earth Exchanges has emphasized the need for industrial policy and a minerals czar. 

Without addressing that missing link, are we just proving—once again—that the U.S. can find the minerals but can’t process them?

The stakes are high. Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine are hailing this as a win for energy security and economic growth. Still, unless there’s a plan for scaling production beyond academia, Appalachia might be sitting on valuable resources with no way to turn them into economic gold.

The research is crucial, but is it part of a real national strategy or just another case of fragmented, underfunded efforts in a critical race that the U.S. can’t afford to lose?