A tonne of nickel powder made by BHP Group sits in a warehouse at its Nickel West division, south of Perth, Australia, on Aug. 2, 2019. Arca will be deploying its proprietary technology over the next 18 months at part of BHP’s Nickel West operations.MELANIE BURTON/Reuters
Arca Climate Technologies Inc. is testing its system for carbon dioxide removal at BHP Group Ltd.’s nickel mine in Australia, launching a pilot project to decarbonize processing of the critical mineral.
Arca, a Vancouver-based cleantech startup, will be deploying its proprietary technology over the next 18 months at the Mount Keith mine, which is part of BHP’s BHPLF Nickel West operations. Under Arca’s system, the focus is on tailings waste management at the vast site near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia.
The aim is to transform the tailings, and then capture and store carbon in rock material on the mining site, before land reclamation.
Since mining itself is carbon intensive, it is an important industry to target for decarbonization to meet goals to combat climate change, said Arca chief executive officer Paul Needham.
“The uncomfortable truth is we need more mining and production of certain critical metals necessary for the energy transition,” he said in an interview. “Arca is helping these producers of critical metals reduce their emissions and actually get into the business of capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and restoring the atmosphere.”
Arca is exploring global opportunities for capturing CO2 in a process called carbon mineralization, including possibilities at mines in British Columbia, Manitoba and Ontario.
With Canada, Australia and many other countries hoping to have electrification play a crucial role in reducing carbon emissions, the need for energy storage will increase, which in turn raises demand for critical minerals such as nickel. Nickel is used in rechargeable batteries.
The Canadian government has identified six critical minerals that are a priority: nickel, lithium, graphite, cobalt, copper and rare earth elements.
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In Australia, the company is concentrating on ultramafic rock, which is rich in magnesium.
“If you look at the molecular structure, there are minerals there that contain magnesium and it’s the magnesium that we are after because magnesium is naturally very reactive with carbon dioxide,” Mr. Needham said. “We apply electromagnetic radiation to that mine waste which disrupts the mineral structure, releasing the magnesium.”
Investors in Arca include Lowercarbon Capital LLC and the Grantham Foundation.
Arca has also secured grants, including $1.25-million earmarked for the Australian pilot project from the B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE).
“Arca is truly a pioneer in engineered mineralization for carbon removal,” Todd Sayers, the centre’s chief operating officer, said in a statement. “With CICE’s support, Arca is in a great position to accelerate large-scale implementation.”
Last year, Arca won a US$1-million XPrize for carbon removal, funded by Tesla Inc. co-founder Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation.
Formerly known as Carbin Minerals Inc., Arca has roots at the University of British Columbia. The three co-founders are Vancouver-based geoscientists from UBC: Greg Dipple, Bethany Ladd and Peter Scheuermann.
Prof. Dipple is Arca’s head of science and he also works at UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences.
“CICE’s grant represents a significant milestone for Arca as it allows us to fast-track our ability to bring our technology and innovation to mining companies around the world,” he said in a statement.
Arca’s technology includes autonomous rovers that monitor and speed up carbon mineralization.
Anne-Martine Doucet and Frances Jones, who are research and development scientists at Arca, and Prof. Dipple are part of the company’s delegation visiting BHP’s site this month in Western Australia.
CICE has also provided $776,000 in general funding to Arca for the measurement, monitoring and verification of carbon removal.
Arca is seeking to carve out a niche in the market for carbon removal by zeroing in on tailings waste in the mining sector.
“We’re skating to where the puck is going,” Mr. Needham said. “We need that mining to be low carbon or carbon negative.”
The UBC spinoff company is a newcomer, compared with much larger and established players in British Columbia such as Burnaby-based Svante Inc. and Squamish-based Carbon Engineering Ltd.
Svante has technology such as specialized filters that capture CO2 from smokestacks while Carbon Engineering’s expertise is directly removing CO2 from the atmosphere so that the colourless gas can be stored underground.
Canadian companies have shown leadership in carbon-management technologies, said Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson. “Arca’s innovative air-to-rock carbon mineralization project is an example of technology we need to accelerate towards a net-zero future by 2050,” Mr. Wilkinson said in a news release.