About Us
PMO Virginia, LLC is a private resource-development company advancing innovative solutions for recovering metallurgical coal, rare earth elements, critical materials, and other valuable mineral commodities from coal refuse, mine materials, and industrial byproducts. By transforming historically underutilized resources into marketable products, PMO Virginia supports stronger domestic supply chains, responsible resource recovery, national security priorities, and renewed economic opportunity throughout Appalachia.
PMO Virginia owns the fully permitted, 170.9-acre Moss No. 1/Red Onion property in the Appalachian Mountains of Southwest Virginia. The property contains approximately 25 million tons of raw coal refuse, including recoverable low-sulfur, 14% BTU metallurgical-grade coal, and is backed by a comprehensive 604-page NI 43-101 technical report.
The property presents multiple potential revenue streams. These include coarse- and fine-grained coal refuse accumulated during historical coal mining and preparation, recoverable metallurgical coal, critical mineral commodities contained within the refuse, and common minerals that may be processed for use in the construction industry. Three large coal refuse ponds located on the property have not yet been fully evaluated and may represent additional resource potential.
The site benefits from established water, electricity, road access, and adjacent rail infrastructure. Experienced employees, laboratories, mining equipment, processing capabilities, and supporting infrastructure are also readily available throughout the local and regional community. Local, state, and federal initiatives may provide additional support for projects that recover critical resources, improve former mining areas, and create economic opportunities in Appalachian communities.
The evaluated coal refuse contains a broad range of critical mineral commodities, including rare earth elements, lithium, cobalt, manganese, titanium, tungsten, vanadium, zinc, zirconium, and others. This resource opportunity aligns with current U.S. Department of Energy initiatives to expand the domestic recovery of rare earth elements and other critical materials from coal, coal refuse, and coal-based feedstocks.
On July 1, 2026, the DOE’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation announced $75 million for five selected projects using coal and coal-based feedstocks to produce rare earth elements and other critical materials. Managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory, the projects are intended to support pilot-scale facilities that produce market-ready critical materials and other valuable mineral products.
Representative analyses indicate an estimated resource containing approximately:
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37.4 million kilograms of titanium
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1.3 million kilograms of rare earth elements
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400,000 kilograms of lithium
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104,700 kilograms of cobalt
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73,000 kilograms of thorium
Many of these critical commodities occur within minerals such as rutile, ilmenite, zircon, and potentially monazite and other phosphate minerals. PMO Virginia’s proposed recovery process uses established industry techniques, including froth flotation and density separation, to separate coal and mineral concentrates from quartz, clay, and other common materials.
Based on regional studies, rutile is expected to be one of the most abundant titanium-bearing minerals within the Moss No. 1/Red Onion coal refuse. Normative mineral calculations converting titanium content to rutile, or TiO₂, indicate a potential rutile resource with an estimated value of approximately $43 million within the five million tons of recoverable coal fines alone. This estimate is based on a reference price of $1,753 per metric ton and remains subject to additional testing, recovery analysis, market conditions, and technical validation.
Under the current business model, recovered coal would be processed into marketable coal briquettes, while critical mineral commodities would be produced and sold as concentrated mineral products. Longer-term opportunities may include the production of activated carbon or graphite from high-purity carbon, as well as the potential production of hydrogen fuel from coal-derived resources.
Initial bench-scale leach testing of four representative PMO Virginia raw coal refuse samples resulted in rare earth element recoveries exceeding 60%, without optimized sample preparation or processing conditions. Split samples were submitted to Virginia Tech and Penn State for independent double-blind testing, with complementary and encouraging results. The findings were also consistent with PMO Virginia’s raw head-grade sample analyses completed to ASTM standards by an independent laboratory.
Additional testing of mineral flotation concentrates and further optimization of the leaching process may improve recovery rates. Concentrating the mineral-bearing materials before leaching may also provide opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce the amount of material requiring downstream processing.
A preliminary 25-year discounted cash flow analysis, prepared in 2022 dollars and based solely on a pilot-scale coal-production stream, produced an estimated net present value of approximately $231 million. The model assumes annual production of 249,000 tons, an average production cost of $21.79 per ton, an average sales price of $120 per ton, a 9.5% discount rate, and total production of approximately 6.2 million short tons over 25 years.
The preliminary capital expenditure forecast for the pilot operation is approximately $12 million, indicating the potential for a comparatively rapid capital payback period. A larger-scale production model could increase overall profitability and shorten the operating timeline, although it would require a higher initial capital investment.
The operational analysis updates and builds upon a 2005 DOE-sponsored feasibility study that examined the conversion of mining and timber waste into engineered coal briquettes. The current model also incorporates anticipated waste-impoundment dredging costs into the project’s financial assumptions.
All resource quantities, valuations, recovery rates, production forecasts, capital requirements, and financial projections are preliminary estimates. They remain subject to additional engineering, laboratory testing, market conditions, permitting, financing, operational review, and technical validation.
PMO Virginia’s mission is closely aligned with the research and development priorities of the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Energy Technology Laboratory. These priorities include developing advanced extraction, separation, and recovery technologies using coal refuse, coal byproducts, mine waste, power-generation ash, acid mine drainage materials, clay, sandstone, and other carbon-related resource streams.
Through responsible resource recovery, proven mineral-processing technologies, and continued research and development, PMO Virginia seeks to create new value from existing Appalachian resources while strengthening the domestic supply of materials considered essential to the United States economy, infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, energy sector, and national security.
