News

By Jim Robbins on The New York Times

Reporting from Butte, Mont. Published May 13, 2025

Register Today! The 2025 West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force Symposium has officially been scheduled for April 16-17, 2025. Complete details are available at WVMDTaskForce.com.

The West Virginia Mine Drainage Task Force was formed in 1978 and assigned to investigate the acid mine drainage (AMD) problem associated with surface mining in central West Virginia. Since then, the Task Force has broadened its scope to include areas outside of West Virginia with many diverse mine drainage issues.

Scientists analyzed coal ash from power plants across the United States and found it could contain up to 11 million tons of rare earth elements — nearly eight times the amount the US has in domestic reserves — worth around $8.4 billion, according to recent research led by the University of Texas at Austin.

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Exciting advancements are underway as the Water Research Institute at West Virginia University (WVWRI) expands a transformative program to extract critical materials from acid mine drainage (AMD), supported by a new, $5 million, three-year U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) grant.  The funding, Production of Individually Separated Rare Earth Metals, will benefit the economy, national security, and the environment.

Rare earth elements (REE) and critical materials (CM) such as cobalt, nickel, and lithium can be found in AMD.  In 2016, the research team, led by WVWRI Director Dr. Paul Ziemkiewicz, pioneered a technique that economically recovers these valuable metals and removes contaminants from AMD, resulting in clean water.  Not only will this be a boon for the environment; it will also create economic and social benefits for the surrounding communities.

David Beard, The Dominion Post

Marc Levy, Associated Press

MOUNT STORM, W.Va. (AP) — Down a long gravel road, tucked into the hills in West Virginia, is a low-slung building where researchers are extracting essential elements from an old coal mine that they hope will strengthen the nation’s energy future.

By Steven Allen Adams for The Intelligencer

MORGANTOWN — With steam coal being replaced by natural gas and renewables, and a slowdown in metallurgical coal mining for steelmaking, a researcher at West Virginia University sees another use for the state’s coal mines.

West Virginia University, a leader in energy research and innovation, is repositioning the institutes within its Research Office to best meet industry-wide transitions.

The Energy Institute will transform into the WVU Institute for Sustainability and Energy Research, effective July 1, 2023, with Sam Taylor as its director. Taylor will build the new Institute on the foundation of the Energy Institute laid by James Wood.

Jack Walker, WV Public Broadcasting

Coal mining can expose minerals like pyrite to oxygen from rainwater and the air. In turn, this pyrite creates sulfuric acid — a toxin to aquatic wildlife that frequently enters water runoff.