Critical Metal Minerals in Coal

Dear Colleagues,

Critical metals (minerals) have unique material properties and irreplaceable major applications in new energy, information technology, aerospace and other cutting-edge industries, and have become an international frontier research direction. However, with the continuous reduction in traditional endogenetic metallic deposits and the increasing difficulty of discovery, the critical metals from coal in the exogenic geological process will become a new and important source. In the early stage of discovery, scholars in various countries found some critical minerals in coal, such as germanium, gallium, uranium, niobium, zirconium, rare earth elements, etc. Furthermore, different from the traditional solid metal minerals, the critical metals in coal can be enriched in coal ash for a second time. However, the research on the distribution, occurrence, metallogenic mechanism, effective exploration, efficient separation, and mining and utilization theory and technology of critical minerals in coal is still not systematic and detailed. Therefore, Minerals plans to publish the Special Issue titled "Critical Metal Minerals in Coal" in 2023. The themes of the Special Issue are as follows:

1. Distribution and occurrence of critical metals in coal.
2. Enrichment and mineralization mechanism of critical metals in coal.
3. High-efficient exploration technology for critical metal minerals in coal.
4. Mining technology of critical metal minerals in coal.
5. Separation and extraction of critical metals from coal and coal ash.

The issue takes lithium, gallium, germanium, niobium, tantalum, zirconium, hafnium, uranium, rare earth and other critical metals in coal as research objects; discusses their distribution laws, occurrence modes and metallogenic theories; and studies the exploration, mining and separation technologies of critical metal minerals in coal.

Prof. Dr. Wenfeng Wang
Dr. Xin He
Dr. Piaopiao Duan
Guest Editors

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