Geoscience BC has announced a new project to examine how rare-earth elements (REEs) – crucial to personal electronics, renewable energy generation and defence technologies – could be extracted from the province’s coal deposits and coal tailings facilities. Coal deposits have been identified and studied in the US and elsewhere as a potential source of REEs. Geoscience BC said in a statement on Thursday that coal deposits could become a viable source, but that little work had been done to characterise and quantify the REE content of these deposits.
