Consortium to Assess Northern Appalachia Resource Yield (CANARY) of Core-CM for Advanced Materials

The work to be performed by University of Kentucky researchers in collaboration with Penn State will include the following subtasks related to the objective of Technology Assessment, Development and Field Testing: 1. Assist in the assessment of the factors that ultimately guides the selection of the appropriate processes and flowsheets needed to extract and purify rare earths, critical materials and carbon from the various potential feedstocks identified, characterized and quantified in other tasks. Factors include modes of occurrence, grain size, distribution, quantity, extractability/leachability among others. 2. Work with the project team to identify process technologies and flowsheets that could be used to economically produce carbon, rare earths and critical material products from each of the primary feedstocks identified in previous tasks. Multiple options including technologies and pathways currently under development will be considered. Processing from the preconcentration stage to downstream production of metals will be addressed. 3. Assess the various options will be performed based on several factors including efficiency, economics and environmental impact. Assessment scores will be used to identify technology gaps that are limiting the viability for extraction and purification based on the critical factors. 4. Develop test programs that address the technology gaps to establish the direction of activity in Phases 2 and 3 of the center.