Published: February 28, 2022 |

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American Resources Corporation said that its American Rare Earth subsidiary is furthering its feasibility study of the lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements present in its various deposits among its 20,000 controlled acres in Central Appalachia.

The company said the lands have demonstrated the potential to contain lithium and cobalt as part of its overall mix of elements, primarily through coal waste deposits and waste streams that possess other favorable cost attributes when processed with its patented electrolysis technology.

American Rare Earth will utilize its “process” technology (electrolysis) to extract the lithium, cobalt, and rare earth elements from its controlled feedstocks and then purify these elements via its patented chromatography technology at its initial facility in Noblesville, Indiana.

“With the discovery of meaningful concentrations of lithium and cobalt alongside the other rare earth elements present in several of our sites in and around our Central Appalachian operations, we have undertaken the project to better define how many sites out of our 20,000 acre reserve base are worth further exploring and how we can most effectively capture and process these metals using our patented processes from Ohio University and Texas Tech University,” said American Resources CEO Mark Jensen in a statement.

“Rare earth elements and battery metals such as cobalt and lithium are proven to be present on a parts-per-million basis in carbon-based materials,” added Jensen.

However, Jensen said the challenge is being able to economically process the elements to a concentrate that can be profitable to isolate and purify to a 99.5 percent purity or greater.

“The key for us is utilizing our patented technologies to monetize the process through byproduct economics thereby offsetting the energy and labor cost in the process to a nominal amount,” said Jensen.

WEST VIRGINIA PROJECT

American Resources, which is currently in the design and implementation phase of its Wyoming County, West Virginia site that was preliminarily approved for a $45 million tax-exempt bond offering, said it is integrating specific mineral spirals and its patented electrolysis technology directly into its high-value metallurgical carbon facilities to process waste streams coming out of the processing plant before certain material is landfilled.

In the process, the company will extract targeted elements present as well as using certain negative particulates present in existing landfilled coal waste streams to be used in its electrolysis process. This step further reduces the chemical needs by using natural materials that are a common byproduct of the coal industry.

“With lithium and cobalt being a key resource for the production of batteries for electric vehicles, etc., and with the market prices and demand rapidly rising, our patents pair very well with a resource such as ours that can be used as a commercially viable feedstock for battery manufacturers, especially in combination with our first-of-its-kind chromatography purification facility,” said Jensen.

“During the concentration process, we target properties that not only possess the elements we are targeting, but also looking for sites that have a greater environmental impact as other materials present in these sites help our electrolysis process produce more monetizable byproducts,” added Jensen.

American Rare Earth will begin the next steps of the feasibility study program by identifying the controlled sites with the highest concentration of lithium and cobalt as well as other key characteristics that maximizes the value of its electrolysis technology.

From there, the company will commercially develop these deposits to be used as additional feedstock for its Indiana-based rare earth and battery metals isolation and purification facility.

Source: Proactive Investors

About American Resources Corporation
American Resources Corporation is a next-generation, environmentally and socially responsible supplier of high-quality raw materials to the new infrastructure market. The company is focused on the extraction and processing of metallurgical carbon, an essential ingredient used in steelmaking, critical and rare earth minerals for the electrification market, and reprocessed metal to be recycled. American Resources has a growing portfolio of operations located in the Central Appalachian basin of eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia where premium quality metallurgical carbon and rare earth mineral deposits are concentrated.

American Resources has established a nimble, low-cost business model centered on growth, which provides a significant opportunity to scale its portfolio of assets to meet the growing global infrastructure and electrification markets while also continuing to acquire operations and significantly reduce their legacy industry risks. Its streamlined and efficient operations are able to maximize margins while reducing costs.

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