Grant: Alliance Grants

Toward sustainable mining principles, the Canadian research community and the mining industry are working together to mitigate the environmental and climate change impacts of resource extraction. Large volumes of mining tailings and waste rocks accumulated at mine sites over decades and are considered wastes. These "wastes" contain significant concentrations of critical minerals. e.g., over $27B worth of residual nickel (Ni) is contained in Sudbury tailings stockpiles, non-economical to extract by conventional mining processes. The overarching objective is developing solar catalysis and novel enzymes as a toolset for the future, with the potential to realize sustainable waste valorization/reclamation. This research project is aligned with the Alliance Mission call in that it aims to 1) advance Canadian clean technology to improve economic efficiency (and environmental footprint) to develop untapped critical mineral resources in mine wastes and 2) develop the Canadian circular economy by valorizing mine wastes through sustainable, net zero, passive processes and environmental stewardship. We hypothesize that the combination of passive solar catalysis and microbial remediation has the potential to be a disruptive, economically practical new hydrometallurgical processing toolkit to extract and process critical minerals, especially from sulfidic ores and wastes. This Alliance proposal's primary objective is to innovate catalysts, enzymes, and passive hydrometallurgical methods for extracting minerals from mining waste. Our research in Years 1 & 2 will prioritize Ni extraction from sulfidic wastes. The third year will extend our exploration to copper, cobalt, and rare earth elements. Bringing together an excellent team from academic, corporate, governmental, and mining sectors, this Alliance program seeks to spearhead a Canadian excellence network in passive mining, simultaneously equipping the next generation with specialized skills for managing Canada's invaluable resources.