“Mining processes create a lot of CO2 as a byproduct,” said Estibalitz Ukar, a research scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences. “If you can capture what is produced at the mine, then you can come up with a low-emission operation, which is good, but we want to use the CO2-reducing properties of ultramafic rocks to help eliminate even more CO2.”
Ukar is leading a team of scientists that is working to perfect the mining technology, which is supported by a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy. The three-year project will work to refine the mining method in the lab for two years before trying a full-scale field test in partnership with Canada Nickel Company. The field test is planned to take place in one of 20 newly discovered ore bodies near the U.S.-Canada border that are forecast to be an important new source of critical minerals in North America.
https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2023/03/new-mining-technology-uses-co2-as-tool-to-access-vital-minerals/