Carbon-negative nickel mining to meet global mineral resource demands

Quin R.S. Miller, Alexandra Nagurney, Madalyn Blondes, Joyashish Thakurta, Jian Liu, Greeshma Gadikota, Nabajit Lahiri, H. Todd Schaef

CO2-Enhanced Mineral Recovery (CO2-EMR) is a deep in situ mining technology that utilizes an engineered CO2 leaching fluid to extract nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co) from subsurface ultramafic rocks, while simultaneously permanently mineralizing CO2 as carbonate minerals. This carbon negative process can contribute to meeting the mineral demands of current and emerging energy technologies. We calculate the amount of Ni and Co available for recovery, and carbon mineralized via this technology from a generic ultramafic intrusion and 14 ultramafic intrusions globally. If 5% of a 1 km3 olivine rock volume reacts with injected CO2, that will yield 500,000 MT Ni, 21,000 MT Co, and store 100 MMT of CO2. Further, 130,000 MMT of Ni, or 2,600x the Ni required for the cumulative global production of energy storage batteries through 2050, are stored in ultramafic rocks in the United States. Globally, the Tamarack Bowl, United States and Savannah Intrusion, Australia have the greatest internal return rate for economic profitability.