Grant: Canada Research Chairs

Though an essential driving force in our economy, mining industry is faced with significant energy and carbon intensity and its greenhouse gas emissions present a serious socio-economic-environmental challenge to the future sustainability of the minerals industry. Also, as close-to-surface minerals resources are rapidly depleted, mining operations sink to deeper earth leaving the industry with even higher soaring energy costs and carbon footprints. At the same time, with growing awareness towards anthropogenic climate change, our societies’ growing appetite for clean-tech products has created a significant growth in demand for strategic minerals required for transitioning to a clean energy economy. In harmony with this societal paradigm shift, mining companies are increasingly pledging into to progressive greenhouse gas reduction commitments which require them to decarbonize at unprecedented and ambitious rates. This CRC research program will address the future challenges in decarbonization of mine energy systems. To do so, it will follow three parallel but complementary research themes. The first theme will focus on the development of novel thermal storage systems and geothermal cooling solutions for integration into conventional and/or renewable mine energy systems. The second theme will aim at developing electrified mining systems including new electric hydrogen and battery electric mining equipment and microwave-assisted rock breakage systems. Lastly, the third theme will develop the engineering tools needed for design and implementation of carbon capture in mine tailings and subsurface formations. The ultimate goal is to help the Canadian (and global) mining industry to reduce its energy costs and emissions and to help this important industry in its path towards a feasible, robust and safe decarbonized future. By taking an innovative ‘whole of mine’ energy systems approach, the proposed research aims to establish the engineering knowhow required for design and development of novel fully-decarbonized hybrid mine energy systems. For the first time, it will study the possibility of employing an integrated energy solution based on hybridization of renewable, hydrogen and thermal energy storage components which will be specifically tailored for the provision of decarbonized power, hauling and heating/cooling in mining operations.