FPX Nickel Corp (TSX-V:FPX) said it has established a new subsidiary -- CO2 Lock Corp -- to pursue opportunities in large-scale, low-cost, and permanent carbon capture and storage (CCS).
CO2 Lock has raised $1.7 million in a seed round financing, leaving FPX Nickel with an approximately 76% ownership interest (fully diluted) in the subsidiary, which will proceed with an independent management team in developing carbon sequestration operations in geological settings worldwide with similarities to FPX's Decar Nickel District.
FPX said CO2 Lock will build on five years of laboratory and field research conducted with partners including the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Natural Resources Canada in understanding the controls for carbon sequestration in the serpentinized peridotites at Decar.
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CO2 Lock will operate as a standalone entity from FPX, and will establish ownership interests in prospective mineral tenures, license or advance projects to commercial production and develop intellectual property associated with the operation of carbon sequestration sites worldwide.
FPX said it will retain 100% of the carbon credits associated with CCS on its own properties and will retain a right to use, free of charge, any intellectual property developed by CO2 Lock for the benefit of FPX's own properties.
"Since 2016, FPX has played a leading role in applying fundamental science to evaluate the potential for large-scale permanent CCS in brucite-rich serpentinized peridotites, and we expect the launch of CO2 Lock to greatly accelerate those efforts going forward," said FPX CEO Martin Turenne in a statement.
"The establishment of CO2 Lock provides immediate value for FPX shareholders and launches a platform for CO2 Lock's independent management team to aggressively pursue the economic and environmental benefits of large-scale permanent CCS on a global scale. Importantly, FPX will have the right to use any intellectual property developed by CO2 Lock, further raising the potential for development of a low- or zero-carbon nickel mining operation at Decar."
Background
Since 2016, FPX has led research on technologies that maximize the reaction between CO2 and brucite (a highly CO2-reactive mineral form of magnesium hydroxide) present in the host rock at the company's Decar Nickel District, and at its secondary properties in British Columbia and the Yukon.
In a natural process called carbon mineralization, CO2 reacts with brucite, and to a much less extent with serpentine minerals, in the tailings and waste rock, binding the CO2 in a benign, solid magnesium carbonate which is stable on a geological time scale.
Previous laboratory and field tests conducted by researchers from UBC have confirmed the ability of FPX's tailings material to mineralize CO2 both when exposed to air and to a point source of concentrated CO2 gas.
Through this work, FPX has become an industry leader in advancing the understanding of the controlling chemistry and mineralogy of carbon capture and the sequestration potential of the host serpentinized peridotite rock.
Ongoing and future test work conducted by both FPX and CO2 Lock will underpin FPX's efforts to optimize CCS parameters in the Decar development plan, including the potential to leverage CCS to advance Decar as an industry-leading low- or zero-carbon nickel operation.
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