US Patent Issued to Colorado School of Mines on Oct. 14 for "Advanced systems and methods for leaching rare earths from ore" (Colorado Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 21 -- United States Patent no. 12,442,059, issued on Oct. 14, was assigned to Colorado School of Mines (Golden, Colo.).

"Advanced systems and methods for leaching rare earths from ore" was invented by Grant T. Colligan (Golden, Colo.), Corby G. Anderson (Golden, Colo.) and Brock O'Kelley (Golden, Colo.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "With the world's rapid advancement of technology, the demand need for the materials that make up that technology has exploded. An important group of materials needed in this rapid advancement are the rare earth elements (REE) used in countless necessary applications. One source of rare earths found in the United States is bastnaesite, a rare ...