In the hills of West Virginia, researchers are studying whether they can extract rare Earth minerals from polluted waster water that flows out of old coal mines. The minerals are essential in making ultralight aerospace components, solar panels, rechargeable batteries and electric vehicle motors. The technology could also pioneer a way to clean up mine drainage that poisons waterways across coal regions. The project is run by the University of West Virginia. It's one of the leading efforts by the federal government to inject more money into recovering rare Earth elements to expand renewable energy and fight climate change. Another grant from the Department of Energy could help scale up the West Virginia project to a fully operational commercial business by the 2030s.