Concord Materials & Rare Earth Element Analysis Center

About The Center

The Concord Materials and Rare Earth Element Analysis Center project was launched in 2022 with funds from a major grant by the U.S. Department of Education, which was procured through the Congressionally Directed Spending program with lead support from Senator Joe Manchin. The original grant has since been augmented by an Innovation Grant awarded to Concord University’s Dr. Kuehn last fall by the Science, Technology and Research (STaR) Division of the WV Higher Education Policy Commission (HEPC). In January, the West Virginia Office of the Governor also allocated funds to partially match the federal grant. Funding awarded for the project to date includes the $642,000 federal grant, $40,000 Innovation Grant, and $150,000 state match which now totals $832,000.

The project will enhance economic development by establishing core infrastructure to attract and support new research enterprise in southern West Virginia and facilitate development of regional REE natural resources. Mercer County is an ideal location for such a project because it is at the heart of the southern West Virginia metallurgical coal fields.

Concord University students and faculty, visiting researchers, and industry will be all able to take advantage of The Concord Materials and Rare Earth Element Analysis Center in support of workforce training, scientific research, and economic development. As a teaching institution, Concord’s analytical instruments are frequently used for classes in geology, chemistry, and physics as well as for collaborative student and faculty research projects. This already makes it possible to provide Concord students hands-on experiences which they might not get elsewhere, and the capabilities to do so just keep getting better.

Further, Concord is seeking to partner with entrepreneurs to demonstrate the commercial application of the newly developed capabilities of the equipment, particularly in the extraction of REEs.

Our Facilities

Electron Microprobe Lab

The ARL-SEMQ electron microprobe at Concord University was installed in 2010. It is currently configured with six wavelength-dispersive spectrometers (WDS), Bruker 5030 large-area silicon drift detector (SDD) energy-dispersive spectrometer (EDS), as well as both secondary and backscatter electron imaging. Twin digital video cameras captures images from the visible light optics, either reflected or transmitted light, and can feed a live image to remote users over the internet. Most analytical, X-ray mapping, and electron image capture functions are automated using modern computer hardware.

To learn more about Concord University’s Electron Microprobe, please click here.