Arca has announced that it is working with producers of nickel to advance carbon dioxide removal at mine sites on three continents, having engaged with Vale, Talon Metals, Poseidon Nickel, NickelSearch and Blackstone Minerals.

The company, which calls itself a leader in carbon mineralisation, works globally with nickel mine developers and operators to capture and permanently store CO2 in mine tailings using its technology.

Arca is developing and commercialising a portfolio of technologies that help mining companies measure, maximise and monetise the carbon sequestration potential of their mining by-products. Arca’s patent-pending mineral activation technology uses high-intensity bursts of energy to transform and disrupt the mineral lattice structure of magnesium-rich minerals, increasing both the rate and capacity for CO2 capture and permanent storage.

With material from its mining company partners, Arca says it has achieved never-before-seen rates of air capture and capacity for CO2 storage, operating at atmospheric air temperature and pressure.

Arca can work with legacy (closed) mines, junior (under-development) mining companies, as well as existing mine operations of any size, and says it is currently working with mining companies in key mining jurisdictions such as Canada, Australia, the US and Southeast Asia.

Today, Arca announced it is working with the global mining major Vale, the Australia-based juniors Poseidon Nickel and NickelSearch, and Blackstone Minerals.

Arca is also working with Talon Metals which, in a joint venture with Rio Tinto, is developing the US’ only high-grade nickel resource for the domestic battery supply chain.

“Talon and Arca are working on transformational change in mining and mineral processing,” Todd M Malan, Head of Climate Strategy, Talon Metals, said. “Our partnership is focused on showing how ‘waste’ from conventional nickel processing can be harnessed to store carbon that has been removed from the atmosphere or captured in industrial processes. This ‘waste-as-carbon-sink’ approach has further potential for reuse in building materials, thus significantly reducing the amount of waste that needs to be stored as compared to present day legacy nickel processing.”

Professor Greg Dipple, co-Founder and Head of Science at Arca, said: “Arca is helping mining companies understand the potential for mineralisation of their resources, design how that potential should be realised, and then advance to actual project development. Our mineral activation technology significantly accelerates the natural process of carbon mineralisation using mine tailings from ultramafic rocks. This helps these companies transform their tailings into industrial-scale direct air capture and storage facilities, transforming mine waste into a valuable new resource and climate solution.”

Arca has been recognized with a $1 million XPRIZE Milestone Award for Carbon Removal, a Foresight50 Award as one of Canada’s most investable cleantech ventures, and an SDTC Seed Fund grant.

Dr Dipple will be speaking in Perth, Australia, about Arca’s technology at the CSIRO symposium on locking carbon in minerals on June 20.