CO2 GONE – CO2 Gasification of Ore for Nickel Extraction

Due to reducing grades of ore available, more energy is required to process energy-relevant minerals than ever before. Adding to the current global instability brought on by the War in Ukraine, nickel metal prices between 2021 to March 2022 have risen 190%. Even if the price lowers to pre-war values, this conflict showcases that reliance on foreign sources of energy-relevant minerals can result in high volatility and a risk to the US Department of Energy’s path to 100% electrification. For this reason, alternative mining and processing methods must be used to increase the yield of energy-relevant minerals and in tandem reduce carbon emissions. The proposed concept is related to Category 2: Develop technologies to capture energy-relevant minerals from CO2-reactive ore. We propose to utilize CO2 for ore carbonation to increase the yield of energy-relevant minerals, primarily nickel and magnesium in lateritic ore, but this could also extract copper, cobalt, manganese, and platinum group metals (PGMs) although that is beyond the scope of the project. Our base case TEA will cover the benefits for nickel and magnesium recovery that may be applied to the other metals mentioned above. The process is completed ex-situ by pressurizing typical energy-relevant gangue minerals in tailings with CO2, to make the corresponding metal carbonates in a matter of hours; thereby, allowing for increased leaching capability of energy-relevant minerals outlined above. The positive outcome is that this process simultaneously permits for the leaching of solutions that are normally not accessible, and is less corrosive than current extraction methods, all while storing carbon.