FEATURE
USING TAILINGS TO GET TO
NET ZERO Carbon mineralization has the potential to more than offset some mines’ emissions By Alisha Hiyate
O
ver the last two years, a wave of miners, one after the other – has declared their intentions to become carbon neutral over the next 30, 20 or even 10 years. How they plan to get there involves multiple avenues – replacing diesel at their operations, incorporating renewable energy, and moving less material. And for some miners, something that’s previously been seen as a liability – tailings – could play a part in helping them achieve net zero carbon emissions through the process of carbon mineralization. Specifically, tailings of ultramafic hosted deposits – nickel, diamonds or PGEs – have the potential to absorb a significant amount of CO2, says Greg Dipple, a professor and researcher at the University of British Columbia who’s been researching carbon mineralization for 20 years. 16 | CANADIAN
MINING JOURNAL
“For some deposits, it won’t make a diffference at all,” Dipple says. “But for others, it’s technically easily feasibile to have mines that are operating net negative in terms of CO2 emissions.” With a team at his lab, CarbMin Lab, Dipple is currently working with diamond miner De Beers – which last year announced an ambitious carbon neutrality target for its operations of 2030 (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) – and two juniors advancing nickel deposits they plan to be carbon neutral (FPX Nickel and Giga Metals). The best part, given the enormity and urgency of the climate problem, is that the measures that Dipple is investigating are simple and inexpensive interventions that could be implemented in the near-term. While carbon mineralization will only be one piece of the puzzle for miners on their path to decarbonization, Dipple says, www.canadianminingjournal.com
