INNOVATION July-August 2013

f ea t ures

CO 2 -absorbing Mineral Shows Potential to Transform Mining Industry

Jean Sorensen Locked in the discarded tailings of diamond, nickel, platinum and gold mines lies a dynamic solution to carbon sequestration—one that could reshape how the mining industry is viewed worldwide. At the center of the research that is occurring worldwide are minerals containing magnesium silicate, frequently found in mine waste rock and which possesses the unique ability to absorb large volumes of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) gas. The bad news, however, is that the tailings’ carbon sequestering process, which occurs naturally, takes thousands of years. Fortunately, a team of University of BC (UBC) researchers, headed by Dr. Michael Hitch, P.Eng./ P.Geo., with the Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining, Engineering and Dr. Greg Dipple, of the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, is leading the

charge to see if they can’t give nature a solid nudge to catapult the process into fast forward. “We are probably the most comprehensive group right now,” says Hitch. UBC’s research team started earlier than most other international teams who have joined the search to find a way to unravel the CO 2 sequestration capacity of the minerals. At the same time, research teams in the US, Australia and also in Quebec are closing the gap as carbon sequestration is literally becoming a hot topic as the effects of and public concern over anthropogenic-centered global warming deepen. Naturally Motivated The interest in finding a solution to greenhouse gas (GHG) problems has been most prevalent in those

2 0

J u ly/Au g u s t 2 013

i n n o v a t i o n