A Global Screening Methodology for Prospective Carbon Storage in Ultramafic/mafic Rocks

Summary CO2 mineralization in mafic and ultramafic rocks represents a potential method of rapid and secure carbon sequestration. Whilst the technology is relatively immature compared to saline aquifers and depleted fields, an approach to enable the rapid identification of areas of high potential is required to expediate the process of site selection. Here we present a global screening approach that encompasses several in-house datasets for the screening of potential for both in-situ and surficial methodologies. The in-situ process considers tectonic setting alongside surface lithology and whole rock geochemistry data to begin to identify areas that are likely to be prospective for mafic and ultramafic rocks, whilst the surficial approach considers the likely geochemistry of mine tailings alongside production volumes to begin to high-grade current and historic mines. Insights from both methodologies are realized rapidly and can be scaled to a more local scale where suitable, enabling the acceleration of initial site selection workflows.