North Dakota coal study providing valuable rare earth elements

North Dakota coal companies hope om’n hand in the solution of the nation’s supply problem of rare earth elements. Europium, dysprosium, within, terbium, neodymium, holmium, scandium, lutetium, and yttrium, are net’n few of these precious materials. “They’re used pretty much all of our modern electronics,” said Steve Benson, co-vice-president for research on Energy and the Environment Research Center in Grand Forks. Magnets, hard drives, alloys, batteries, catalysts in cars, lasers, even the coal’s cleaner energy cousins of the wind turbines and solar panels depend on rare earth elements – which, in turn, depends on the lignite coal. And…