Methods and apparatus for production of rare earth elements from coal and clay ores

A method of extracting a rare earth element from a coal deposit utilizing a ligand to capture the rare earth element, comprising:

• crushing the coal deposit to form a coal particulate, wherein the coal deposit comprises a rare earth element and metal impurities;
• forming a first pregnant leachate including the coal particulate and a ligand;
• extracting the metal impurities via an ion exchange or floatation to form a reduced leachate;
• forming a second pregnant leachate comprising the reduced leachate and the ligand;
• extracting the rare earth element from the reduced leachate via acid leaching;
• capturing the rare earth element in the binding site of the ligand;
• and
• desorbing the rare earth element from the ligand.

A system to extract a rare earth element from a coal deposit, comprising:

• a molecular exclusion system comprising:
• a separation column configured to separate a first solution, the first solution comprising an acid solution including a ligand and coal particulate having rare earth elements and metal impurities therein, the coal particulate derived from the coal deposit, the separation column configured to capture the metal impurities and output a reduced solution;
• and
• a second solution configured to separate the reduced solution and capture at least one rare earth element from the reduced solution;
• a third solution configured to release the captured at least one rare earth element;
• wherein each of the first solution and the second solution comprises a binding ligand expressed on a column configured to capture the rare earth element.