minerals that are present. Hyperspectral imaging also used to differentiate between healthy and in - fected trees and map contaminant dis- tribution in land and water. An intriguing new development is work being done by UAA’s Brandon Briggs, associate professor of biological sciences, and UAA chemistry graduate student and research assistant Michael Martinez, on use of bacteria to extract Rare Earth Elements, or REEs, from Alaska coal. This builds on work by UAF’s Prof. Tathagata Ghosh in deter- mining the rare earths content of coal. Usibelli Mine, Inc., Alaska’s sole coal producer, is collaborating on the project. Usibelli has long been a uni- versity supporter. Briggs and Martinez have devel- oped the process at laboratory test “bench scale” and are in the process of filing a patent on the process. The next step would be a scale-up to a demonstration project. Federal and state geologists have recognized the potential for develop- ing REEs in Alaska to produce critical minerals, many of them important for defense technologies, for which the U.S. is now heavily dependent on China.
Photo courtesy UAF
Alaska now has one rare earth mine in development planning at Bokan Mountain on Prince of Wales Island near Ketchikan in Southeast Alaska. In a related development, Bill Sch- nabel, Dean of UAF’s College of En- gineering and Mines, said the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded a $1.5 million grant to UAF to do a statewide inventory of potential REE resources. The project will result in a matrix that includes resource information along with available infrastructure
and regional environmental factors that could affect development, Sch - nabel told the university’s Board of Regents in September. Increased research funding is a plus, but the university has suffered a series of state budget cuts for eight years in a row that have resulted in a decline in overall enrollment. Rising research activity helps off - set this by attracting students, and UA’s graduates in the science and engineering fields have been holding steady.
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Fall 2021
The Alaska Miner
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