FPX Nickel Corp (CVE:FPX) announced that expanded field tests at its Baptiste Project in the Decar Nickel District of central British Columbia have revealed the potential for significant direct air carbon capture in tailings in the area.
These field tests, from Phase 2 of a two-part program conducted by researchers from the University of British Columbia (UBC) funded by FPX and the Government of Canada, continue to demonstrate that the Baptiste Project's tailings can sequester significant quantities of carbon dioxide (CO2) when exposed to air through a natural process of mineral carbonation, the company said.
Significant rates of carbon sequestration were noted on a continuous basis throughout Phases 1 and 2 under all test conditions, with the highest rates of sequestration occurring in tailings subjected to churning at regular intervals to encourage greater exposure of the crushed material to air.
READ: FPX Nickel reveals plans for further exploration at Decar nickel project focusing on defining and expanding new targets
Measurements during the combined 83-day Phase 1 and 2 field programs indicate capture of 5.8 grams of CO2 for each kilogram of crushed Baptiste tailings exposed to air by churning on a regular basis to a depth of 12 centimeters (cm). Carbon sequestration rates observed (3.7 kg CO2 per square meter per year) are approximately 50% greater than the estimated average rates of capture under the dry conditions at BHP's Mount Keith nickel mine in Western Australia (2.5 kg CO2/m2 year).
"These positive results continue to demonstrate that Baptiste has unique potential to become the world's first large-scale, carbon-neutral nickel operation," CEO Martin Turenne said in a statement. "The competitive advantage for FPX is the elevated content in our Baptiste deposit of the key, highly carbon-reactive mineral brucite, which is present in higher concentrations at Baptiste than at typical intrusive-hosted ultramafic nickel sulphide deposits.
“The elevated brucite content of the Baptiste deposit therefore presents us with a unique opportunity to drive toward carbon neutrality at Baptiste, and we look forward to expanded testing in 2021 to deliver further evidence to investors and potential strategic partners alike."
The two-phase test program built on more than a decade of research on maximizing the reaction between CO2 and brucite, the mineral form of magnesium hydroxide, present in the Baptiste mine tailings. In a natural process called carbon mineralization, CO2 reacts with brucite in the tailings, binding the CO2 in a benign, solid magnesium carbonate which is stable on a geological time scale.
UBC researchers have also conducted testing to assess the rate and quantity of carbon capture from the injection of concentrated CO2 gas into Baptiste tailings, and FPX expects to report the findings of the concentrated injection test program in the coming weeks.
Looking ahead, the company plans to further expand the size and scope of carbon sequestration testing, with two direct air capture experiments expected to commence in the third quarter of 2021.
The first is a six-month experiment in Vancouver on approximately 2.4 tonnes of tailings material, or approximately eight times the scale of a previous 2020 experiment. The other is a yearlong experiment in central British Columbia on roughly 300 kg of tailings material, designed to better understand the longer-term carbon sequestration potential of undisturbed tailings.
The Decar Nickel District is home to a greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in the form of a naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy called awaruite, which lends itself to bulk-tonnage, open-pit mining. Drilling has focused on the Baptiste Deposit with a total of 82 holes and over 31,000 metres of drilling completed. The Sid target was tested with two holes in 2010 and the B target had a single hole drilled in 2011 and all three holes intersected nickel-iron alloy mineralization over wide intervals with grades comparable to Baptiste, according to FPX.
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