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Highlights

• Indiana aims to extract rare earth elements from 1,900 abandoned mine sites containing coal waste.
• Materials are extremely low-grade at approximately 10g yttrium per cubic yard, far below commercial viability.
• The state's strategic value lies in becoming a federally-funded pilot zone for coal-waste valorization technologies like bioleaching and ion-exchange, not immediate commercial production.
• Governor Braun's initiative aligns with national interest to develop domestic REE supply chains.
• There is high research and development potential despite uncertain economics and speculative recovery claims.

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Indiana’s first meeting of the Rare Earth Recovery Council delivered an energetic vision: transform the state’s massive coal waste inventory—gob, slurry, acid drainage, sludge—into a new source of rare earth elements (REEs). Governor Mike Braun wants “liabilities turned into resources,” and the Department of Natural Resources is now tasked with proving coal waste can feed a domestic REE industry.

The optimism is real. Indiana’s 1,900 abandoned mine sites are loaded with unconsolidated materials that do contain trace REEs like yttrium and rubidium. This aligns with national interest: the U.S. Geological Survey and the Office of Surface Mining explicitly encouraged Indiana to become their “test state.”

But optimism is not the same as economics.

Where the Story Holds—and Where It Frays

The reporting accurately states the core challenge: Indiana has no traditional REE deposits. Its coal-derived materials are extremely low-grade—roughly 10 grams of yttrium per cubic yard. Investors should understand that this is orders of magnitude below commercially viable feedstock grades from ion-adsorption clays or hard-rock monazite.

The article’s most concerning line is the claim that a gob pile contains “$10 billion of rubidium.” True in a purely theoretical in-situ sense, but meaningless without recovery parameters. This is where speculative language—likely unintentional—creeps in. There is no scalable extraction pathway today that economically recovers rubidium from coal refuse at industrial-grade purity.

The council acknowledges this indirectly: REE recovery must be incidental to federally funded mine reclamation, not the primary objective. That’s a polite way of saying the economics don’t work yet.

The Real Upside: Federal Dollars, Permits, and Proof-of-Concepts

Despite the low grades, Indiana’s move is strategically relevant. The state could become a pilot zone for coal-waste valorization—testing bioleaching, ion-exchange fluids, or hybrid chemical processing under federal reclamation grants. Success here would not match China’s commercial volumes but could create a pipeline of U.S.-born extraction technologies.

This is how breakthroughs begin: not with high grades, but with smart experimentation paid for by someone else.

Investor Takeaway: High Vision, Low Grade, Worth Watching

Indiana is not about to replace Baotou or Jiangxi. But it may become the birthplace of niche U.S. extraction tech—exactly the kind of innovation Washington wants and industry needs. Treat this as early-stage, high-R&D, low-yield… but strategically aligned.

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