State Rep. Neal P. Goodman and state Sen. David Argall announced Monday that Blaschak Coal Corp. of Mahanoy City has secured a $25,000 grant that will help the company extract rare earth elements and critical materials/minerals from anthracite-based resources.
Rare earth elements and critical materials/minerals are used in electronic, optical and magnetic devices. The lawmakers said China currently produces nearly all these materials, and there is a large demand to have it produced domestically.
“I’m pleased that a local company is helping to make our commonwealth and our country less reliant on a foreign source of these important materials,” said Goodman, D-Schuylkill.
“Using the carbon components of anthracite as an industrial mineral provides further avenues for use, and I am pleased to see Blaschak Coal look at anthracite as more than a commercial and residential heating fuel source,” said Argall, R-Schuylkill/Berks.
Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Northeastern Pennsylvania provided the grant. Blaschak, which has mines in Schuylkill and Luzerne counties, has partnered with Lehigh University’s Energy Research Center to develop a process to extract these materials from anthracite mine water.
