REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE: REEVALUATING OLD COAL CORES FOR NEW PURPOSES

Areas of energy research are always evolving and expanding, but drilling new wells and creating new mines can be costly and harmful to the environment. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)’s critical minerals initiative is seeking to reduce the cost of exploration for critical minerals and rare earth elements (CMs/REEs) through the reevaluation of previously acquired cores. While briefly touching on the history and health implications of the Marshall County Mine (formerly McElroy Mine), we explore the geology and resource potential of critical minerals and rare earth elements (CMs/REEs) surrounding coal seams in northern West Virginia, specifically focusing on the MC-10-09 core drilled in 2009.

As part of the DOE’s effort to locate zones of high concentrations of CMs/REEs, the MC-10-09 core was obtained from a coal-resource exploration well in Marshall County, West Virginia. The core characterization facilities at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) were used to characterize bituminous coal from the Dunkard Group and Monongahela Formation in Marshall County, West Virginia. There is potential for this area to be developed in the future for CM/REE extraction, as sedimentary deposits, such as formations around coal seams, have been identified as a potential unconventional source of CMs/REEs. The equipment utilized at NETL include computed tomography (CT) facilities, Multi-Sensor Core Logger (MSCL), and a handheld permeameter.

MC-10-09 was drilled through coal sites enriched in CMs/REEs, namely: Jollytown, Washington, Waynesburg, Sewickley, and Pittsburgh No. 8 coal seams. This research presents qualitative analysis of the medical CT images coupled with X-ray fluorescence, P-wave, and magnetic susceptibility measurements from the MSCL to identify enrichment zones of CMs/REEs within the MC-10-09 cores. The combination of methods used provided a multi-scale analysis and an industrial, macroscale, and microscale description of the core. Preliminary results show bands of nickel, copper, and manganese inclusions, as well as relatively low permeability at these zones. All data is made publicly available on NETL’s Energy Data eXchange for others to utilize and a technical report will be published on the same website.