II 

115TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1563 

To authorize the Office of Fossil Energy to develop advanced separation 

technologies for the extraction and recovery of rare earth elements and 

minerals from coal and coal byproducts, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JULY 13, 2017 

Mr. MANCHIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To authorize the Office of Fossil Energy to develop advanced 

separation technologies for the extraction and recovery 

of rare earth elements and minerals from coal and coal 

byproducts, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Rare Earth Element 

5 Advanced Coal Technologies Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 


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1 (1) the United States is largely dependent on 

2 foreign imports for the domestic supply of rare earth 

3 elements and minerals in the United States; 

4 (2) as of the date of enactment of this Act, the 

5 United States does not have domestic production ca6 pability for, or a guaranteed supply chain of, rare 

7 earth elements and minerals, particularly in times of 

8 national crisis; 

9 (3) access to certain rare earth elements and 

10 minerals is critical for the national security of the 

11 United States; 

12 (4) China maintains a near monopoly of the 

13 global supply chain of rare earth elements and min14 erals; 

15 (5) the successful development of commercially 

16 viable refining methods of rare earth elements and 

17 minerals from coal byproducts could lead to new eco18 nomic development opportunities in parts of the 

19 United States most affected by the downturn of the 

20 coal industry; 

21 (6) rare earth elements— 

22 (A) comprise 17 elements on the periodic 

23 table, including— 

24 (i) the lanthanides, which are lan25 thanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium 


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1 (Pr), neodymium (Nd), promethium (Pm), 

2 samarium (Sm), europium (Eu), gado3 linium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium 

4 (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), thulium 

5 (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and lutetium (Lu); 

6 and 

7 (ii) transition elements, which are 

8 scandium (Sc) and yttrium (Y); and 

9 (B) can be divided into— 

10 (i) light rare earth elements, which 

11 are lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseo12 dymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), pro13 methium (Pm), and samarium (Sm); and 

14 (ii) heavy rare earth elements, which 

15 are scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), europium 

16 (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dys17 prosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), erbium (Er), 

18 thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), and lute19 tium (Lu); and 

20 (7) it is in the interest of the Federal Govern21 ment— 

22 (A) to guide responsible domestic produc23 tion of rare earth elements and minerals to en24 sure industry and consumers in the United 

25 States have access to a reliable domestic supply 


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1 of valuable rare earth elements and minerals; 

2 and 

3 (B)(i) to identify the areas of highest po4 tential interruption in the global supply chain of 

5 rare earth elements and minerals; and 

6 (ii) to strengthen the position of the 

7 United States in that supply chain by miti8 gating potential interruptions through the de9 velopment of advanced coal technologies. 

10 SEC. 3. PROGRAM FOR EXTRACTION AND RECOVERY OF 

11 RARE EARTH ELEMENTS AND MINERALS 

12 FROM COAL AND COAL BYPRODUCTS. 

13 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary of Energy, acting 

14 through the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy (re15 ferred to in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’), shall carry 

16 out a program under which the Secretary shall develop 

17 advanced separation technologies for the extraction and 

18 recovery of rare earth elements and minerals from coal 

19 and coal byproducts. 

20 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

21 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 

22 out the program described in subsection (a) $20,000,000 

23 for each of fiscal years 2018 through 2025. 


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1 SEC. 4. ASSESSMENT AND REPORT. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after the 

3 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Energy, 

4 in consultation with the Secretary of Defense (referred to 

5 in this section as the ‘‘Secretary’’), shall carry out, and 

6 submit to the Committee on Energy and Natural Re7 sources of the Senate and the Committee on Energy and 

8 Commerce of the House of Representatives— 

9 (1) an assessment— 

10 (A) identifying and ranking the rare earth 

11 elements that— 

12 (i) are most important to consumers 

13 in the United States; 

14 (ii) are most jeopardized in the global 

15 supply chain; and 

16 (iii) will have the greatest impact to 

17 consumers in the United States in the 

18 event of a disruption in the global supply 

19 chain; 

20 (B) evaluating the development of ad21 vanced separation technologies for the extrac22 tion and recovery of rare earth elements and 

23 minerals from coal and coal byproducts (re24 ferred to in this subsection as the ‘‘tech25 nologies’’); 


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1 (C) identifying and evaluating the results 

2 of the development of the technologies, includ3 ing the results with respect to the extraction 

4 and recovery of each rare earth element; 

5 (D) determining what the technologies are 

6 capable of producing; 

7 (E) evaluating the performance of the 

8 technologies, including what the technologies— 

9 (i) succeed and fail at accomplishing; 

10 and 

11 (ii) can and cannot do cost-effectively; 

12 and 

13 (F)(i) evaluating the market impact on 

14 each rare earth mineral of the penetration of 

15 commercially viable technologies; and 

16 (ii) how the penetration of commercially 

17 viable coal-based technology will impact the 

18 global supply chain; and 

19 (2) a report analyzing— 

20 (A) the additional resources required for 

21 the development of commercial-ready deploy22 ment of technologies that are second generation 

23 and transformational; and 

24 (B) the market impact of processes to 

25 treat and recover rare earth elements and minVerDate Sep 11 2014 05:06 Jul 22, 2017 Jkt 069200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1563.IS S1563

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1 erals from sludge generated during treatment of 

2 acid mine drainage from coal mines. 

3 (b) REQUIREMENT.—In carrying out the assessment 

4 and report under subsection (a), the Secretary shall focus 

5 on the rare earth elements determined by the Secretary 

6 to be most critical to the national security of the United 

7 States. 

Æ 


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