Pre-Mining Carbon Storage

A collaboration between Canada Nickel and the University of Texas at Austin is piloting an in-situ carbon sequestration technique that aims to store carbon underground before mining starts

Canada Nickel Company is testing a new way to store carbon dioxide (CO2) underground—before mining even begins—at its Crawford nickel-cobalt project near Timmins, Ontario.

The pilot project is a partnership between Canada Nickel and a team led by Estibalitz Ukar, research associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, that is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency—Energy (ARPA-E).

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“Our laboratory research examines how ultramafic rocks can permanently store carbon through in-situ mineralization, and Canada Nickel’s Crawford nickel project provided an ideal setting to move that work from the lab to the field,” Ukar explained. “The collaboration originated through ARPA-E’s teaming partner network, which aims to connect academic research groups with industry partners where benchtop concepts can be tested in real-world settings.”

In-situ mineralization needs specific types of rock to succeed, Ukar said. “The process relies on geological conditions in which rocks contain minerals that naturally react with CO2 to form stable carbonate minerals,” she explained.

This permanently stores the carbon in solid form, removing it from the environment. “Ultramafic rocks are particularly well suited for this because they contain magnesium-rich minerals such as olivine and serpentine that readily react with carbon dioxide,” noted Ukar.

Unlike most carbon sequestration processes, which store CO2 in waste rock that has already been mined and processed, the in-situ mineralization process does so within the rock mass, before mining commences. Water is used as the transport medium to carry dissolved CO2—which has been injected into the water at elevated pressure to form carbonated water—deep into the target rock formation, where it reacts with the magnesium-rich minerals and is incorporated into the rock’s mineral structure.

“One of the key advantages of in-situ mineralization is that carbon storage can be integrated directly into the mining environment rather than added later in the process,” added Ukar.

In addition, she said, the mineralization process generates local stresses that fracture the rock, creating new surface areas. These fractures enhance the flow of CO2-rich water through the rock mass, improving its access to reactive minerals and allowing it to propagate more effectively through the formation. This accelerates reactions that transform hard minerals such as olivine and pyroxene into softer carbonates, which in turn makes the ore easier—and less expensive—to mine and process. This method can also turn areas of the ultramafic deposit that lack economically recoverable minerals into valuable assets for removing CO2 from the environment.

The Pilot

The Crawford site is particularly attractive for in-situ mineralization, added Ukar, because its ultramafic rock is rich in brucite, a highly reactive magnesium-rich mineral that reacts rapidly with CO2 to absorb and sequester it by forming carbonate minerals. There is also plenty of water in the area and the deposit already contains a natural permeability network that allows CO2-rich water to be injected at depth.

“At Crawford, the approach also creates the potential to precondition the rock mass through mineralization and associated fracturing,” she said. “This could reduce the energy required for blasting and processing during mining, while simultaneously enabling permanent carbon storage.”

The in-situ mineralization pilot at the Crawford project followed nearly two years of research and preparation, including the installation of a monitoring network at the site. Between mid-November and mid-December of 2025, CO2-saturated water was continuously injected into a well approximately 396 metres deep. The well was cased to 350 metres, creating an injection interval between 350 and 396 metres. The water was sourced from an on-site well and saturated with CO2 before injection.

The monitoring network, which consists of six water monitoring wells, interferometric synthetic aperture radar satellite monitoring, 12 surface seismic stations and three borehole seismic sensors, allowed the research team to track seismic activity, water chemistry and any potential movement of CO2 during the test.

In a Feb. 19 press release, Canada Nickel declared that the field test had been a success: approximately 12 tonnes of CO2 that had been injected as part of the field test remained dissolved at depth, with no surface leakage detected, the company said.

Next Steps

Mark Selby, CEO of Canada Nickel, said that monitoring will continue at the Crawford project in the coming months as the team gathers further data about the in-situ mineralization process so it can understand how it performs under various conditions.

“The pilot was designed to provide the data required to evaluate the technical potential of the approach under field conditions,” he said. “Monitoring of seismicity, water chemistry and subsurface conditions will continue over the coming months as the team gathers additional data from the pilot.”

Before the ground thaws this spring, the team will collect rock samples from additional boreholes, as well as water samples from the monitoring wells, evaluate water chemistry and track the CO2-enriched water’s activity.

The objective, said Ukar, is to continue to observe the underground reaction and validate the predictions from laboratory experiments and computer modelling. The results are expected later this year.

“As monitoring continues and results are analyzed, Canada Nickel will assess how the findings may inform future carbon sequestration initiatives associated with the Crawford project and other ultramafic deposits in the Timmins nickel district,” said Selby.

The in-situ carbon sequestration project is the company’s third initiative for utilizing the Crawford project’s ultramafic rocks to capture and store carbon as part of its quest to become “the world’s first net-zero carbon nickel mine.”

In 2023, Canada Nickel did a pilot test of a carbon sequestration process where CO2 is permanently stored within the brucite component of tailings while they are in the milling circuit. The test confirmed that the technology, called In Process Tailings (IPT) Carbonation, has the potential to permanently store up to 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 per year at the Crawford project. In February 2025, the company received nearly $3.4 million from the federal government to support the development of the IPT Carbonation process.

Canada Nickel also entered a strategic partnership with the Australian company NetCarb in 2025 to collaborate on the commercialization of NetCarb’s carbon sequestration technology. This technology consists of serpentinite activation, followed by hydrometallurgical processing of ore through a CO2 activity swing reactor, to dissolve and reprecipitate magnesium as solid carbonate minerals. Canada Nickel has stated that NetCarb’s technology has the potential to sequester 10 to 15 million tonnes of CO2 annually at the Crawford project.

“The in-situ mineralization pilot, along with IPT Carbonation and the NetCarb process, represent different opportunities to utilize the unique properties of the ultramafic rocks at Crawford to permanently store carbon,” said Selby.

He added that Canada Nickel will continue to collaborate with research institutions and technology partners as it works on its carbon mineralization initiatives.

These three projects are part of Canada Nickel’s broader strategy to develop the Crawford project and support the creation of a low-carbon industrial cluster in northeastern Ontario, while also developing new domestic supplies of critical minerals such as nickel, which play an increasingly important role in key sectors like electric vehicle production, stainless steel manufacturing and defence-related technologies.

“Partnerships such as the collaboration with the University of Texas at Austin help accelerate the development and testing of innovative approaches that could contribute to large-scale carbon storage and low-carbon industrial development,” said Selby.

“By combining critical mineral production with large-scale carbon mineralization, projects like Crawford can help strengthen our domestic supply chains while supporting lower-carbon industrial development.”