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Posted on 05/25/2006 12:25:06 PM PDT by USFRIENDINVICTORIA
More than 17 million tonnes of tailings from the abandoned Clinton Creek asbestos mine in the Yukon are slowly sliding down a hillside, reshaping the landscape and blocking water flows.
The environmental eyesore does, however, have one redeeming quality. The pile is sucking tonnes of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere.
"It is happening at a higher rate than anyone expected," says geologist Gregory Dipple of the University of B.C., who sees big potential for mines -- and mine tailings -- to be part of the global warming solution.
Unlike schemes that entail pumping carbon dioxide underground where it's hard to monitor, Dipple says this form of geological capture provides a visible alternative. The carbon dioxide is sucked out of the air and locked into mineral structures. At Clinton Creek, the once powdery tailings have turned rock solid.
"This was sand when it was deposited. Now it's so heavily cemented I couldn't break it with my shovel," Dipple says of a particularly hard section of the tailings, which have been sliding down the hillside for more than 30 years and solidifying as they react with rain water and atmospheric CO2.
He estimates close to 160,000 tonnes of carbon has already been captured by the Clinton Creek tailings. "That's worth $5 million based on the current exchange rate on the European Climate Exchange," Dipple says.
While it sounds impressive, 160,000 tonnes does not make much of a dent in the 750 million tonnes of carbon Canadians spew into the air each year. It does, however, point to the potential of rocks to help slow global warming.
"The reactive capacity is immense," Dipple says. He estimates Canada alone has enough rocks to absorb billions of tonnes of CO2.
The trick is to expose rocks so they can grab carbon. Some have suggested opening mines to grind up the most absorbent type of rock, which would be prohibitively expensive. Dipple believes there is a much cheaper approach: tweak and tune existing mines and mine tailings to optimize carbon capture.
Tailings from the world's magnesium silicate mines alone have the capacity to capture hundreds of millions of tonnes of carbon a year, Dipple says.
Magnesium silicate-- which is mined for nickel, platinum, asbestos, and diamonds --has a strong affinity for carbon. Rain need only wash carbon from the air and onto rocks to trigger chemical and microbial reactions that lock up the carbon as carbonate. The process can be enhanced by adding water to fresh ground tailings, which are fused together as the carbonates form.
Dipple says he was amazed when he first saw the process in action in Thetford Mines in Quebec several years ago.
He and his colleagues from the Geological Survey of Canada and the University of Western Ontario have since documented the same phenomenon in abandoned mines in northern B.C. and at Clinton Creek. They also sized up carbon sequestration that happened naturally in a rock formation near Atlin Lake.
It's all the more interesting because it involves an abandoned asbestos mine. A favourite boogey man of the 1980's rises to help counter biggest environmental boogey man of all times.
Any bets on whether there's a slide about this in Al Gore's movie? (I'm highly unlikely to check it out for myself.)
Wow! Clinton and sucking something out in the same article..........
Great --- asbestos to the rescue. All we need to do is replace CO2 in the atmosphere with asbestos particulates and everything will be fine...
Good one here.
see? those computer models are worthless crap... yet everyone follows them like a religion. those things project what the coder puts into the program to extrapolate.. without all the possible variables being included(this means nature taking care of itself) the tests are donkey crap apples
"the tests are donkey crap apples"
ROFL.....you have a way with words :)
Any idea what the over/under is on when we see the first enviro's heads start to explode?
It is in Geraldo Riveras' tomb.
Exactly. It's amazing the number of people who aren't aware that the models aren't reliable, or that there are ways that nature can return to equilibrium.
Rights, farms, environment ping.updated List of Ping lists vol.III(Get Your Fresh Hot Pings Here!)
BTTT
This is excellent. If and when we need to do something about CO2, this will be one tool at our disposal.
Zing!
My electroplating tanks regularly absorb CO2 from the air and form carbonates. With a bit of energy input, we can turn the carbonates into rocks, i.e., stone building blocks. Your new house, garage, stone fence, and swimming pool could permanently sequester many tons of CO2.
LOL! Give the man a ceegar!
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