With many miners establishing net-zero commitments, the industry’s decarbonization efforts are becoming more urgent. Miners are also the chief suppliers of minerals critical to global decarbonization efforts. Demand for these minerals is thus expected to grow significantly. At the same time, mining operations are becoming more complex as deeper and lower-grade deposits are opened up. This combination of factors will likely place upward pressure on mining-related emissions.

It is also a fact that some greenhouse gas emissions in the broader economy are challenging, if not impossible, to avoid or abate. These include agricultural and waste NOx emissions, aviation and shipping CO₂ emissions, and CO₂ emissions from building heating and cooling. Strategies that generate net negative emissions are therefore needed to achieve economy-wide carbon neutrality.
 

Carbon dioxide removal and mineral carbonation

In this intricate net-zero landscape, there is mounting interest in carbon dioxide removal (CDR). CDR is a catch-all term covering processes that extract and securely store CO₂ from the atmosphere, helping to tackle hard-to-abate and historical CO₂ emissions. These systems can be biological, such as afforestation and reforestation, or technological, such as direct air carbon capture and storage. CDR offsets are commercially tradable with prices predominantly defined by their degree of permanence and additionality, as tracked via a measurement, reporting, and verification protocol.

Mineral carbonation is one method of lowering emissions from on-site or off-site sources and permanently storing captured CO₂ within a CDR ecosystem. It describes processes that react CO₂ with an alkaline feedstock to form solid carbonate minerals. One example is the injection of CO₂ (dissolved in water) into mafic and ultramafic geologic formations. However, mineral carbonation can also be accelerated and better controlled at the surface wherever there is a source of solid alkaline material. And this is where CDR meets the mining industry.