Alaska Energy Metals has partnered with the Colorado School of Mines and Virginia Polytechnic Institute to research the carbon sequestration potential of ultramafic rocks and tailings at its Eureka nickel deposit in Alaska.
The research will be performed under the umbrella of the Center to Advance the Science of Exploration to Reclamation in Mining, a premier joint research center between the two colleges, supported in part by the United States National Science Foundation and the United States Geological Survey.
“U.S. domestic mining is essential for both the electrical energy expansion and for U.S. national security,” said Alaska Energy Metals President & CEO Gregory Beischer.
“For these reasons, we have intentionally begun to study and assess the use of modern technological innovations like ultramafic mine tailings carbonation at the early stages of the development phase of our project.”
The research is expected to deliver:
- Normative mineralogical data calculated from whole-rock geochemical information with tabulated normative data that can be easily plotted down hole or used in 3D modeling.
- Block modeling to constrain the average mineralogical composition of the mineralized zone. The obtained average mineralogy will closely correspond to the composition of potential future tailings.
- Carbonation modeling of tailings over a simulation time of 20 years while receiving an equilibrium supply of CO2 (i.e., open system). In this manner, the amount of CO2 to be sequestered will be calculated for each year, resulting in a time-dependent assessment of carbonation potential. This will allow for a robust estimate of the benefits of implementing negative carbon technology at the Eureka deposit.
Source: Alaska Energy Metals