Canada Nickel and UT Prove Mining Can Fight Climate Change

What if a nickel mine could pull carbon out of the earth before a single ore is even extracted? That's not a hypothetical anymore. Canada Nickel Company and the University of Texas at Austin just completed a successful in-situ carbon sequestration pilot at the Crawford Nickel Project near Timmins, Ontario, and the results are turning heads across the industry.

The pilot, backed by the U.S. Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy (DOE ARPA-E), injected CO₂-enriched water into ultramafic rock 400 metres underground. The result: approximately 12 tonnes of CO₂ injected and on track for permanent mineralization, with zero surface leakage detected.

This isn't just another carbon capture experiment. It's proof that in-situ carbon mineralization can work at a real mining site, at scale, with measurable outcomes.

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Two Years of Work, 12 Days of Injection

The pilot didn't happen overnight. Nearly two years of planning, laboratory experiments, and the installation of a comprehensive monitoring network came first. Then, starting November 20, 2025, the team ran short-duration injection trials over a 12-day period through December 1.

The monitoring was thorough: seismic sensors, gas detectors, groundwater sampling, and satellite surface tracking. No significant seismic events were detected. No CO₂ emerged from monitoring wells or the sedimentary surface cover. Preliminary chemical analysis confirmed the injected CO₂-rich water hadn't even reached the monitoring wells yet, exactly as the reactive transport models predicted.

That level of precision matters a lot for an approach that's still proving itself commercially. And Crawford delivered.

Why Ultramafic Rock Is the Secret Weapon

The geology here does a lot of the heavy lifting. Crawford sits on a large ultramafic deposit rich in brucite, a magnesium-bearing mineral that naturally reacts with CO₂ to form stable carbonate minerals like magnesite and nesquehonite. These minerals trap carbon in solid form, permanently.

Canada Nickel's approach injects this process directly into the ground before mining even begins. That's different from most carbon storage methods tied to mining waste, which deal with tailings after the fact. Doing it pre-mining has a bonus effect: the CO₂-rich water fractures and softens the rock, making it less energy-intensive to blast and grind later.

In other words, the decarbonization work also reduces future operating costs. That's a rare win-win in this space.

This pilot is also distinct from Canada Nickel's two existing carbon programs. The company already has its IPT Carbonation process (which received $3.4 million in federal funding in early 2025) and the NetCarb process. The Crawford in-situ injection pilot is a third, independent pathway, expanding what the company can offer as the industry looks for diverse, scalable carbon removal approaches.

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A Model for the Mining Sector

The timing is significant. Mining companies are under growing pressure to clean up operations, and the sector's massive ultramafic deposits represent a largely untapped carbon storage opportunity. Companies like Arca (formerly Carbin Minerals) have been exploring similar territory with mine waste, but the Crawford pilot takes a different angle: working within the ore body itself, before extraction.

The ultramafic deposits that lack economically recoverable minerals can now be turned into productive carbon storage assets. That's a new value proposition for parts of a mine site that would otherwise sit idle.

Monitoring will continue into spring 2026, when wells will be re-entered and sampled after several months of natural reaction. The team expects most of the CO₂ to transition from dissolved form to solid carbonate minerals within six months of injection, a timeframe consistent with bench-scale studies conducted ahead of the pilot.

What Comes Next for Crawford

Spring monitoring will be the next big checkpoint. Once wells are re-sampled and chemical analysis confirms CO₂ has fully mineralized into solid carbonate, the data will help Canada Nickel build the case for scaling this approach across its Timmins Nickel District holdings.

The broader vision is a Zero-Carbon Industrial Cluster in northeastern Ontario, a region that's already home to significant ultramafic geology. With three proven carbon pathways in play and growing momentum in permanent carbon removal globally, Crawford is positioning itself as more than a nickel producer.

The science of using rocks to permanently trap CO₂ has been building for years. What Canada Nickel and UT Austin showed at Crawford is that it doesn't have to stay in the lab. It works in the ground, at a real mine site, right now.