Millions of tons of coal ash are currently sitting in ponds and landfills across the United States. The U.S. alone produces around 110 million tons of this coal mining byproduct each and every year. The ponds that house this ash pose a major threat to the environments that host them, but they might also hold the secret to homeshoring vital supply chains for critical minerals. Last year, scientists at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin analyzed coal ash samples collected from power plants across the United States and found that domestic coal…