According to Thomas Novak, professor and Alliance Coal Chair in the Department of Mining Engineering at the University of Kentucky, approximately 50 percent of all coal produced in underground mines in the U.S. comes from a particular kind of underground mine called a longwall mine.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory has awarded nearly $1 million to Rick Honaker, professor and chair of the University of Kentucky Department of Mining Engineering, to develop a mobile pilot-plant facility for the recovery of rare earth elements from coal.