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A comment on Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates from coal. Parent comment

Re:Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates f... by vanderZwan on Monday March 12, 2018 @02:11PM (#16570123)
Both energy and resource-wise it's much cheaper to just grow plants and char them. And you probably end up with side-benefits from growing plants in the process.
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Re:Researchers produce nearly-pure rare earth concentrates f... by logfromblammo on Monday March 12, 2018 @03:32PM (#16570725)
What if one of your goals is to buy votes of otherwise-unemployed coal miners?

If the coal has no economic uses for energy production, but the mining has some reason to happen anyway, where the coal itself becomes a by-product, turning it into agricultural soil wouldn't be entirely horrible. The heavy metals would probably have to be removed before disposing of it anyway.

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