Canada's Next Industrial Play: The Mine That Stores Carbon

This is the third episode of The Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special miniseries about embedding carbon removal into Canadian industry. Na’im speaks with Mark Selby, Chairman and CEO of Canada Nickel; Scott MacDougall, Canada Nickel’s vice-president of carbon and energy development; and Greg Dipple, co-founder and head of science at Arca. Mark and Scott explain how carbon storage became part of the Crawford Nickel Project near Timmins, Ontario. In July 2022, a 10-kilo bucket of tailings and a lab CO2 cylinder did over one weekend what Mark says would take about a decade in a tailings facility. That test is now an engineered step in Crawford’s feasibility study, and Mark says it could store up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 a year. Scott covers the tax credits that could help pay for it, including the push to recognize mineral carbonation under the federal CCUS credit. Greg explains what happens in the rock, how Arca measures it, and what Arca learned at BHP’s Mount Keith mine in Western Australia, the first carbon removal deployment at an active mine. He is also clear about the limits. A mining company has to cut its own emissions first, and every mine is different. Both conversations touch mining’s oldest problem, closure. Old mines can cost taxpayers billions to clean up. If the tailings store carbon, the credits can help cover that cost. At Carbon Removal Canada, we’re testing this in Thetford Mines, Quebec, through the Quebec Surficial Mineralization Hub, launched this spring with Frontier and local partners. Na’im, Mark, Scott, and Greg discuss: * Why Crawford matters for nickel supply, and how it compares with production in Indonesia * How the clean technology manufacturing and CCUS investment tax credits fit the economics * How Crawford could store CO2 for other industries in northeastern Ontario * What happens when ultramafic rock meets CO2, and how Arca measures it * What an operating mine taught Arca that a lab couldn’t * How carbon removal revenue could help clean up legacy mine sites * Why rock-based carbon removal at scale needs a bigger mining industry Relevant Links * Canada Nickel - Website * Arca - Website * Carbon Removal Canada - Quebec Surficial Mineralization Hub * Frontier - Website About Mark Selby Mark Selby is the CEO of Canada Nickel. His team took the Crawford Nickel Project from early drilling through feasibility and permitting in under seven years. About Scott MacDougall Scott MacDougall is vice-president of carbon and energy development at Canada Nickel. He came from the Pembina Institute, and before that worked at Suncor and the Government of Alberta. About Greg Dipple Greg Dipple is a professor emeritus of geological sciences at the University of British Columbia and co-founder and head of science at Arca. His 25-year research program on how mine waste captures CO2 led to Arca. About Canada Nickel Canada Nickel is developing the Crawford Nickel Project in the Timmins Nickel District of northeastern Ontario. Crawford is designed to be one of the western world’s largest nickel sulphide operations. This summer, it became the first mining project approved under Canada’s amended Impact Assessment Act. Learn more at canadanickel.com. About Arca Arca works with ultramafic mine tailings to speed up how they capture CO2 from the air. In 2023 it launched the first carbon removal deployment at an active mine site, at BHP’s Mount Keith operation. It has since signed a ten-year deal with Microsoft for nearly 300,000 tonnes of carbon removal. Learn more at arcaclimate.com. This episode was made possible thanks to the generous support of the Consecon Foundation. This episode was created and published by Na’im Merchant. Episode production and content support provided by Daniel Kelter and Tank Chen. Na’im Merchant is the co-founder and Executive Director of Carbon Removal Canada, a policy initiative focused on scaling carbon removal in Canada. He is on the advisory board of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative and Terraset, and a former policy fellow with Elemental Impact. He previously ran carbon removal consulting practice Carbon Curve, and publishes The Carbon Curve newsletter and podcast. This episode is part of Carbon Curve: Canada’s Next Industrial Play, a special mini-series. The views here are his own. Tank Chen is the Head of Content and Community at CDR.fyi, a public benefit corporation dedicated to accelerating carbon removal through transparency. He is also the co-founder of CDRjobs, a career platform for the carbon removal industry. Daniel is the Senior Director of Public Affairs for Carbon Removal Canada. Based in Ottawa, he leads the organization’s engagement with Parliament, federal departments, and the wider carbon removal community, bringing experience from industry associations in the steel and fertilizer sectors and from the offices of Members of Parliament. His career has centred on building coalitions across industry, government, and civil society to move shared priorities forward. Next time, we head to the coast to see what carbon removal can do for Canada’s fisheries. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to this podcast on your favorite podcast app or subscribe via The Carbon Curve newsletter here. If you’d like to get in touch with Na’im, you can reach out via LinkedIn. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit carboncurve.substack.com