Rare Earths & Paint | The Last Coal Mine

From Toxic Legacy to Revenue Streams

In coal country, waste from abandoned and bankrupt mines has contaminated more than 12,000 miles of waterways. Now states are looking at how to extract critical elements from those waters to try to offset the high cost of cleanup.

University students sift iron oxide-filled mud from acid mine drainage collected from a discharge site next to Sunday Creek in Millfield, Ohio, U.S., October, 2021.

Paul Ziemkiewicz stands above a clarifier at the acid mine drainage treatment plant beside the Cheat River in Albright, West Virginia, U.S., April, 2022.

Water flows from the clarifiers after dissolved solids are removed and the pH is adjusted at the AMD treatment plant beside the Cheat River in Albright, West Virginia, U.S., April, 2022.

Solids separated from acid mine drainage settle in a test tube at the environmental research lab, University of Ohio, U.S., October, 2021.

Rick Honacker, Xinbo Yang and Lauren Pennington at the mining engineering department lab, University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky, U.S., March, 2022.

Assistant research professor Xinbo Yang at work in the University of Kentucky's mining engineering department lab, Lexington, Kentucky, U.S., March, 2022.

An acid-leaching test setup at the department of mining engineering at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, U.S., March, 2022.

Acid mine drainage colors Sunday Creek, a stretch of which is considered one of Ohio's most polluted rivers, Millfield, Ohio, U.S., October, 2021.

Artist John Sabraw in his studio, where he uses iron oxide paint made from acid mine drainage, Athens, Ohio, U.S., October, 2021.

Acid mine drainage seeps through a bat gate covering a former coal mine at Sulphur Spring, Corning, Ohio, U.S., April, 2022

Artist John Sabraw, left, and a team of university students collect the settled mud from an AMD discharge site at Sunday Creek in Millfield, Ohio, U.S., October, 2021.

Michelle Shively MacIver and John Sabraw, in front of a team of University students who help collect the settled mud from an acid mine drainage discharge site at Sunday Creek, Millfield, Ohio, U.S., October, 2021.

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