Mining and Carbon Dioxide Removal 

In the coming decades, billions of tons per year of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) will be needed for the world to meet climate goals.  

Implementing CDR projects on mine sites could meet a significant fraction of this need — more than 1 billion tons of CO₂ annually — at competitive cost versus other forms of CDR, while improving mine safety, productivity, and earnings. 

Implementing CDR presents new challenges for mine operators, too. CDR sits outside the conventional business model of mining companies, and advancing CDR in mining requires the creation of new markets, market infrastructure, and regulation in collaboration with stakeholders outside of mining.  

This report provides a comprehensive assessment of opportunities for the mining industry to responsibly advance CDR, key complications and issues that need to be solved, and an action agenda for mine operators and other stakeholders to jointly pursue. 

The full 147-page report includes: 

• A description of 14 different CDR methods relevant to mining, and how they can be deployed in a mining context 
• The business case for mining operators, across productivity, earnings, risk management, and strategic resilience 
• An overview of current CDR activity in mining contexts  
• Details on relevant commodities and feedstocks for geochemical CDR methods 
• Information on how CDR projects are quantified and verified for negative CO₂ emissions  
• Considerations regarding environmental and social impacts 
• Wider considerations for siting projects, including those related to required infrastructure and inputs
• A case for co-locating different projects on single sites, as a means of improving overall economics and environmental impacts  
• A proposed action agenda for all stakeholders to advance responsible CDR deployment in mining  

Also included are a technical appendix covering detailed technical assessments for 8 of the 14 identified CDR pathways covered in the roadmap, and an appendix highlighting 5 primary market and regulatory drivers expected to influence the growth of CDR, especially CDR done with the intent of reducing net emissions for differentiated green products.  

Download the complete roadmap to learn more about how CDR intersects with the mining industry. 

Additional Contributors

Charithea Charalambous, RMI; Kyle Clark-Sutton, RMI;  François de Rochette, RMI;  Elizabeth Healy, RMI; Rudy Kahsar, RMI; Thomas Koch Blank, RMI; Kaveer Phillip, RMI; Annina Sartor, RMI; Isabel Wood, RMI; and Eli Weaver, RMI; Liam Bullock, IGME-CSIC; Bart de Baere, WSP; Paolo Natali; Rhys Savage; Noah Shannon, ND Shannon & Associates; Katherine Vaz Gomes, Carbon Direct

Acknowledgements

This roadmap was made possible through the support of the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment and the Climate Pathfinders Foundation. It also benefitted greatly from the work of the Mining CDR Working Group co-hosted by Isometric, RMI, and WSP, input from the Advancing CDR in Mining workshop at London Climate Action Week co-hosted by Anglo American, CDR2030, and RMI, and the work of all the CDR suppliers who are developing and deploying solutions with and for mine operators.