Old coal mines in places like West Virginia and Pennsylvania tend to collect water which quickly becomes horribly toxic, polluting streams. New methods are being piloted to remove the metals and minerals, some of which ironically can be used to power electric cars.
The residual environmental damage from coal mining is huge.
In Pennsylvania alone, drainage from coal piles and abandoned mines has turned waterways red from iron ore and turquoise from aluminum, killing life in more than 5,000 miles (8,000 km) of streams. Federal statistics also show about 470 square miles (about 1,200 square km) of abandoned and unreclaimed coal mine lands host more than 200 million tons of coal waste.
But thanks to financing from the Biden administration, solutions are being engineered. Some focus on reprocessing coal waste and others on water flowing from old mines.
At the facility, drainage from a one-time coal mine — now closed and covered by a grassy slope — emerges from two pipes, and dumps about 800 gallons per minute into a retention pond.
From there the water is routed through massive indoor pools and a series of large tanks that, with the help of lime to lower the acidity, separate out most of the silicate, iron and aluminum. That produces a pale powdery concentrate that is about 95% rare earth oxides, plus water clean enough to return to a nearby creek.
Darcy Hitchcock 
DOE is also funding researchers in Colorado and Wyoming to characterize the chemistry of coal mines in the two states, evaluate them for critical mineral extraction, and identify alternative uses for “coal ore.” Davin Bagdonas of the University of Wyoming gave a very interesting presentation on the research at the Northwest Colorado Energy Summit in June.