Rare earth elements in flotation products of coals from East Kootenay coalfields,British Columbia

With the identification of coal deposits that are enriched in rare earth elements (REEs) across the world, coal and coal by-products are considered as an alternative source for REEs due to the combined supply and demand restrictions for these elements. Studies are being conducted to recover these elements from various coal sources. In this study, coal samples from the East Kootenay coalfields in British Columbia, Canada were examined for the presence of REEs in run-of-mine coal samples and flotation products.Results reveal that on an ash basis, the concentration of REEs varies from 174 to 1038 mg/kg in the samples. To understand the REE as sociation, which is essential for extraction purposes, a three-step sequential extraction process along with a mineralogical evaluation using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and quantitative X-ray diffraction (XRD) data was used. It is found that a significant portion of REEs in the feed samples were reported to middling and tailings streams. The mineralogical analyses reveal REE association with aluminosilicate mineral in the samples.