• 507 days Will The ECB Continue To Hike Rates?
  • 507 days Forbes: Aramco Remains Largest Company In The Middle East
  • 509 days Caltech Scientists Succesfully Beam Back Solar Power From Space
  • 908 days Could Crypto Overtake Traditional Investment?
  • 913 days Americans Still Quitting Jobs At Record Pace
  • 915 days FinTech Startups Tapping VC Money for ‘Immigrant Banking’
  • 918 days Is The Dollar Too Strong?
  • 918 days Big Tech Disappoints Investors on Earnings Calls
  • 919 days Fear And Celebration On Twitter as Musk Takes The Reins
  • 921 days China Is Quietly Trying To Distance Itself From Russia
  • 921 days Tech and Internet Giants’ Earnings In Focus After Netflix’s Stinker
  • 925 days Crypto Investors Won Big In 2021
  • 926 days The ‘Metaverse’ Economy Could be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030
  • 926 days Food Prices Are Skyrocketing As Putin’s War Persists
  • 929 days Pentagon Resignations Illustrate Our ‘Commercial’ Defense Dilemma
  • 929 days US Banks Shrug off Nearly $15 Billion In Russian Write-Offs
  • 932 days Cannabis Stocks in Holding Pattern Despite Positive Momentum
  • 933 days Is Musk A Bastion Of Free Speech Or Will His Absolutist Stance Backfire?
  • 933 days Two ETFs That Could Hedge Against Extreme Market Volatility
  • 935 days Are NFTs About To Take Over Gaming?
Why Chinese Rare Earth Prices Are Soaring

Why Chinese Rare Earth Prices Are Soaring

The prices of Chinese-sourced rare…

Tesla's Biggest Competitor Is Going Cobalt-Free

Tesla's Biggest Competitor Is Going Cobalt-Free

The world’s second-largest electric vehicle…

EV Metal Index Soars To Record Heights

EV Metal Index Soars To Record Heights

The MINING.COM EV Metal Index,…

Mining.com

Mining.com

Mining.com

MINING.com is a web-based global mining publication focusing on news and commentary about mining and mineral exploration. The site is a one-stop-shop for mining industry…

Contact Author

  1. Home
  2. Commodities
  3. Industrial Metals

The Unsung Hero In The Race To Go Green

Green Energy

An international team of researchers has discovered that carbon dioxide plays a crucial role in making metals used in green technologies accessible for mining.

In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, the scientists explain that nickel, copper, cobalt and platinum-group elements can be carried by CO2 ‘bubbles’ through magma away from the Earth’s mantle and into the upper crust, where they have the potential to form large ore deposits.

The geoscientists, who hail from the University of Leicester, University of Western Australia, University of Milan, ETH Zurich, Yale University, Universidad de Granada and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, reached this conclusion after assembling a suite of textural, geochemical and isotopic information from rocks derived from a range of selected localities globally. These data allowed them to identify that certain types of magma produce a supercritical CO2 fluid in the mantle, which has a strong attraction to sulphide liquid droplets. 

THE RESEARCH ADDRESSES THE TRANSPORT OF METALS FROM THE CORE AND MANTLE OF THE PLANET INTO THE CRUST TO FORM DEPOSITS OF NICKEL, COBALT, COPPER AND PLATINUM GROUP ELEMENTS

In detail, this CO2 fluid is less dense than the magma itself and so rises, carrying the dense metal-rich sulphides with it. As the CO2 and sulphide get closer to the surface, they then part ways, leaving no evidence of CO2 in the upper crust. The team’s evidence of carbonate and sulphide in the lower crustal rocks provide a vital snapshot of this deep process in action before it is eradicated in the upper crust.

“CO2 has been viewed in recent times as having a negative role in science, considered the villain in causing climate change, but we show that it is actually a hidden hero in bringing us the metals essential for the future of clean energy,” Daryl Blanks, lead author of the study, said in a media statement. “The idea here is that CO2 plays a critical role in the transfer of metals from the mantle and has major implications in the formation of metal-rich magmatic deposits which are used for technologies like electric vehicle batteries.”

Blanks explained that the process of transporting metals by CO2 is like the initial fuel boosters on a rocket launch to space. 

“The fuel boosters (CO2) are essential in getting the rocket (magma) and its precious cargo (metal-rich sulphides) off the ground, but once spent, the fuel tanks separate, and the evidence they were there by the time the rocket reaches space is gone!” he said.

According to the researcher, this discovery may assist in the search for new deposits, allowing exploration to broaden out to viable locations that may not have previously been considered.

By Mining.com 

More Top Reads From Safehaven.com:

Back to homepage

Leave a comment

Leave a comment