Alaskan coal mines with high rare
earth element (REE) levels (286–524
mg/kg) serve as an alternative domestic REE source. Existing leaching/separation
technologies require hazardous chemicals to recover REEs from the
feedstock with multiple downstream purification stages, increasing
the overall operational cost. This study aims at bioweathering coal
from two Alaskan coal mines (Wishbone Hill and Healy) at three specific
gravity fractions (1.3 float and 1.3 and 1.5 sink) using Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 for achieving REE recovery.
Optimizing the bioweathering process by varying the solids percentages
(5.7 to 14.3% w/v), particle size (74 to 1180 μm), incubation
temperatures (30 to 34 °C), and inoculum dosing (0.2 to 1% v/v)
resulted in the highest recovery of neodymium (75.3%) and total REEs
(98.4%) from 1.3 float Wishbone Hill and 1.3 sink Healy coal, respectively.
Chemical leaching had higher recovery of REEs in most fractions; however,
bioweathering had enhanced recovery of the individual REEs, especially
scandium, yttrium, ytterbium, terbium, erbium, and lutetium from Healy
coal at low specific gravity samples and yttrium from Wishbone Hill
coal at high specific gravity samples. The results highlight the potential
for developing cost-effective and selective REE biorecovery processes
that can help address the global critical mineral supply chain risk.