Overview
Current methods for mining and processing ore and metal recovery are energy intensive. They lead to significant waste streams along with energy-related greenhouse gas emissions, exacerbating the climate crisis. In addition, electrification of the transportation sector is a key part of Canada’s climate strategy. Therefore, we need energy-efficient and environmentally friendly methods for mining and recovering critical minerals, such as nickel, that are key components in batteries and electric vehicles. The project will use genomics and bioleaching technologies to characterize and engineer microbial populations to treat pyrrhotite tailings, waste streams of current mining practices, for nickel extraction. Bioleaching technologies are already commercially used for mining, mainly extracting higher-priced metals (e.g., gold, copper) from sulfidic ores. The team will use genomic solutions to enable the widespread application of bioleaching technology, such as meeting the need for faster bioleaching kinetics, improved selectivity and monitoring methods. Metso-Outotec will work with producers/owners to implement the technology on pyrrhotite tailings from Sudbury basin mines. The extraction of nickel from pyrrhotite tailings in Canada has a potential value of $26 billion, can provide a source of critical minerals for production of electric vehicle batteries, and enable significant (>75%) reduction in waste generation from mining processes.