A pile of waste rock in the Elk Valley, B.C.Jesse Winter/The Narwhal
Canadian carbon-removal developer Arca Climate Technologies Inc. has formed a partnership with a major U.S. carbon credit marketer aimed at expanding its field of potential buyers as it seeks opportunities to apply its technology in projects around the world.
Vancouver-based Arca said it will collaborate with Carbon Direct, which has a large international network of buyers and sellers of carbon credits. The alliance will allow the company to expand credit sales without having to invest time and money to develop an internal marketing team, Sean Lowrie, Arca’s head of external affairs, said.
Arca has developed a proprietary method of speeding up a natural process of trapping carbon dioxide in waste rocks and other byproducts of mining, a process known as carbon mineralization. Industrial companies seeking to offset their own emissions can buy credits for removing carbon from the atmosphere and locking it away.
It is one of a growing number of companies in Canada inventing and deploying carbon-dioxide removal, or CDR, technology. CDR involves extracting CO2 from the ambient air, setting it apart from a separate method known as carbon capture, utilization and storage, in which greenhouse gases are trapped from point sources such as industrial smokestacks.
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Arca will accelerate its expansion by working with New York-based Carbon Direct, which designs carbon-management strategies for Fortune 500 companies, Mr. Lowrie said in an interview.
“Carbon Direct is the leading scientific consultancy in the carbon-removal space, so working with them, it really leverages our credibility,” he said. “It also shows that Carbon Direct, from its position of expertise, is leaning into working with mining using mineralization. It’s becoming a carbon-removal pathway that has a lot of promise and is gaining a lot of attention.”
Under the arrangement, Carbon Direct will be paid from the proceeds of sales, he said.
Greg FitzGerald, vice-president of supply at Carbon Direct, said Arca is providing a unique solution to one of mining’s biggest problems – its waste – and is turning that into climate action. The Canadian company has proven carbon mineralization at scale, offering both virtually permanent storage and verifiable measurement, he said in a statement.
The global mining sector generates billions of tonnes of alkaline rock waste per year, requiring environmental management, Arca said. That also presents a major opportunity to remove carbon.
Arca – whose backers include InBC Investment Corp., Lowercarbon Capital LLC and NorthX Climate Tech – has already made a high-profile and long-term credit sale. Last year, Microsoft Corp. MSFT-Q agreed to buy 300,000 tonnes of carbon removal from Arca over 10 years. The company believes the agreement with Carbon Direct could yield similar volume, Mr. Lowrie said.
“We’d be very happy to sell another 300,000 tonnes,” he said.
Arca recently completed an 18-month pilot with mining major BHP Group Ltd. BHPLF that removed CO2 at a mine site, and is now setting plans to deploy the technology at other locations. It formed a partnership with Tjiwarl Aboriginal Corporation to develop projects in Western Australia’s Goldfields region.
In January, Arca and junior miner Giga Metals Corp. GIGA-X signed a 10-year deal to explore carbon removal at a British Columbia nickel project, which has the potential to remove 220 million tonnes of atmospheric CO2.
Ottawa has smoothed the way for CDR companies, which are developing such other technology as direct-air capture, biomass carbon removal and direct ocean capture. The government has designed a regulatory and policy framework that includes industrial carbon pricing and investment tax credits.
Earlier this year, leaders in the industry, along with corporate and financial backers as well as the federal government, announced the formation of the Advance Carbon Removal Coalition, which aims to attract $100-million in CDR project investments in Canada by 2030.
Editor’s note: The headline of this story has been updated to correct the name of Carbon Direct.