II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1052 

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 

APRIL 4, 2019 

Mr. MANCHIN (for himself, Mrs. CAPITO, and Ms. MURKOWSKI) 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 critical 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 critical minerals; 

8 (3) access to certain rare earth elements and 

9 minerals is critical for the national security of the 

10 United States; 

11 (4) China maintains a near monopoly of the 

12 global supply chain of rare earth elements and crit13 ical minerals; 

14 (5) the successful development of commercially 

15 viable refining methods of rare earth elements from 

16 coal byproducts could lead to new economic develop17 ment opportunities in parts of the United States 

18 most affected by the downturn of the coal industry; 

19 (6) rare earth elements— 

20 (A) comprise elements on the periodic 

21 table, including— 

22 (i) the lanthanides, which are lan23 thanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium 

24 (Pr), neodymium (Nd), samarium (Sm), 

25 europium (Eu), gadolinium (Gd), terbium 


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1 (Tb), dysprosium (Dy), holmium (Ho), er2 bium (Er), thulium (Tm), ytterbium (Yb), 

3 and lutetium (Lu); and 

4 (ii) transition elements, which are 

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

6 (B) can be divided into— 

7 (i) light rare earth elements, which 

8 are lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseo9 dymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), pro10 methium (Pm), and samarium (Sm); and 

11 (ii) heavy rare earth elements, which 

12 are scandium (Sc), yttrium (Y), gado13 linium (Gd), terbium (Tb), dysprosium 

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

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

16 and 

17 (7) it is in the interest of the Federal Govern18 ment— 

19 (A) to guide responsible domestic produc20 tion methods of rare earth elements and min21 erals to ensure industry and consumers in the 

22 United States have access to a reliable domestic 

23 supply of valuable rare earth elements and min24 erals; and 


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1 (B)(i) to identify the areas of highest po2 tential interruption in the global supply chain of 

3 rare earth elements and minerals; and 

4 (ii) to strengthen the position of the 

5 United States in that supply chain by miti6 gating potential interruptions through the de7 velopment of advanced separation technologies 

8 for coal and coal byproducts. 

9 SEC. 3. PROGRAM FOR EXTRACTION AND RECOVERY OF 

10 RARE EARTH ELEMENTS AND MINERALS 

11 FROM COAL AND COAL BYPRODUCTS. 

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

13 through the Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy (re14 ferred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’), shall carry out 

15 a program under which the Secretary shall develop ad16 vanced separation technologies for the extraction and re17 covery of rare earth elements and minerals from coal and 

18 coal byproducts. 

19 (b) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

20 authorized to be appropriated to the Secretary to carry 

21 out the program described in subsection (a) $23,000,000 

22 for each of fiscal years 2020 through 2027. 

23 SEC. 4. ASSESSMENT AND REPORT. 

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

25 date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary, in consultaVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:38 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1052.IS S1052

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1 tion with the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of 

2 the Interior, shall carry out, and submit to the Committee 

3 on Energy and Natural Resources of the Senate and the 

4 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House of 

5 Representatives— 

6 (1) an assessment— 

7 (A) identifying and ranking the rare earth 

8 elements that— 

9 (i) are most important to consumers 

10 in the United States; 

11 (ii) are most jeopardized in the global 

12 supply chain; and 

13 (iii) will have the greatest impact to 

14 consumers in the United States in the 

15 event of a disruption in the global supply 

16 chain; 

17 (B) evaluating the development of ad18 vanced separation technologies for the extrac19 tion and recovery of rare earth elements and 

20 minerals from coal and coal byproducts (re21 ferred to in this subsection as the ‘‘tech22 nologies’’); 

23 (C) identifying and evaluating the results 

24 of the development of the technologies, includVerDate Sep 11 2014 01:38 Apr 10, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1052.IS S1052

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1 ing the results with respect to the extraction 

2 and recovery of each rare earth element; 

3 (D) determining what the technologies are 

4 capable of producing; 

5 (E) evaluating the performance of the 

6 technologies, including what the technologies— 

7 (i) succeed and fail at accomplishing; 

8 and 

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

10 and 

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

12 each rare earth mineral of the penetration of 

13 commercially viable technologies; and 

14 (ii) how the penetration of commercially 

15 viable coal-based technology will impact the 

16 global supply chain; and 

17 (2) a report analyzing— 

18 (A) the additional resources required for 

19 the development of commercial-ready deploy20 ment of technologies that are second generation 

21 and transformational; and 

22 (B) the market impact of processes to 

23 treat and recover rare earth elements and min24 erals from acid mine drainage from coal mines. 


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

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

3 on the rare earth elements determined by the Secretary 

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

5 States. 

Æ 


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