Keeling Curve

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Project Summary / Description:

The purpose of our project is to develop technology that accelerates the natural process of atmospheric carbon mineralization, removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it permanently as rock. To do this, we partner with the minerals industry to implement our technology at active mines, taking advantage of an enormous existing feedstock and creating mines that produce permanent carbon removal as well as the metals necessary for the clean energy transition. 

In order to execute on this vision, we formed Carbin Minerals Inc. on September 13, 2021. Carbin Minerals is a spinoff of Professor Greg Dipple‚ world leading lab at the University of British Columbia. Due to the urgent need for climate solutions, we are bringing the research out of the lab in order to scale rapidly. The driving motivation behind forming Carbin Minerals is to have as large a climate impact as possible, and to that end we are working toward gigatonne scale, durable carbon dioxide removal. Current global carbon removal capacity is several orders of magnitude lower than the billions of tonnes per year that is needed to keep global warming below 1.5 oC or even 2 oC, as determined by the most recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report. By tapping into one of the largest carbon storage reservoirs on Earth, ultramafic rocks, we are working on a solution that will tangibly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere and truly turn the dial on climate change.

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Our climate solution uses tailings produced by mining operations, which is a massive, untapped feedstock for carbon sequestration and we believe it should not go to waste. It is directly tied to the mining industry, and we first want to acknowledge that the mining industry has been responsible for innumerable historical and ongoing injustices to local and indigenous communities. Much progress has been made in recent years to rectify previous standards of mining practice, but plenty of work remains. We are not a mining company, but we will not dissociate ourselves from these issues; rather we will be active participants to help the industry figure out how to both produce the metals needed for the clean energy transition and operate in a fair, sustainable, and equitable way. The former cannot happen without the latter.

To do this, the voices of the communities in which mining operations or mining-related activities are occurring or planned must be heard. As a lab conducting the foundational research upon which our company is built, we have directly engaged with the local first nations as well as the broader community for every field site we have evaluated. As we move forward as a company, any planned activities on a potential site will involve consultation with the local indigenous community to incorporate local concerns, priorities, and knowledge. 

As we scale and move to operating mines, typically local engagement around mining activities will go through the mining company itself. As a third-party company, we will keep ourselves informed on the activities and results of consultation in order to determine if local community concerns are being met. As the value of our services grows in the new low-carbon economy, we will be able to exert influence in this realm. Additionally, we intend to perform education and dissemination activities around carbon mineralization targeting local communities. We are also planning to incorporate an outreach branch to better understand a) how local and indigenous communities can be involved in sharing the benefits of implementation of carbon removal technology, and b) how to incorporate the priorities and values of these communities in low-carbon resource development activities.

It is important to note that mining is one of the largest employers of First Nations in Canada. Mine development projects are increasingly collaborations between First Nations and the minerals industry, which can enable the economic benefits to flow directly to the local communities. We will use our knowledge gathering and knowledge sharing to empower local communities to understand the full value of the rocks below their lands.

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