VANCOUVER, BC, Nov. 2, 2021 /CNW/ - FPX Nickel Corp. (TSXV:
FPX) ("FPX" or the "Company") is pleased to
report the results of new testing which demonstrates the potential
for enhanced carbon capture and storage ("CCS") in tailings
and waste rock at its Baptiste Project (the "Project") in the Decar
Nickel District in central British Columbia. These laboratory
tests, conducted by researchers from the University of British Columbia ("UBC")
funded by FPX and the Government of Canada, demonstrate that the injection of
carbon dioxide ("CO2") as simulated flue gas (10%
CO2) can be expected to increase the ability of Baptiste
tailings and waste rock to sequester CO2 into a
permanent mineralized form, thereby boosting the Project's
potential to become the nickel industry's first carbon-neutral or
carbon-negative operation.
Highlights
- The positive results of these CO2 injection tests
are complementary to the positive results of the direct air-capture
tests described in the Company's February
16 and June 9, 2021 news
releases, and present an additional manner of engineering
CO2 mineralization in Baptiste tailings and waste
rock
- Consistent rates of carbon mineralization were achieved in all
tests, ranging from 13.3 to 15.3 grams of CO2
sequestered for each kilogram of crushed Baptiste tailings with
tests varying between 8 to 18 days in length, and subjected to
direct injection of 10% CO2 gas under a variety of
conditions of gas flux and permeability
- Significant rates of carbon mineralization were noted on a
continuous basis in all tests, with rates typically peaking on the
first day and declining over the course of the test
- The CO2 mineralization achieved during the tests is
both permanent and verifiable by two independent measurement
methods
- FPX to host live webinar on Wednesday,
November 3rd at 12:00
pm Eastern (registration available at
https://www.renmarkfinancial.com/live-registration/renmark-virtual-non-deal-roadshow-tsx-v-fpx-2021-11-03-120000)
Cautionary Statement: The test results described herein are
preliminary in nature and may not be representative of conditions
or results in an operating environment, particularly as it pertains
to the representativeness of mineralization, moisture content,
changes in weather conditions, process water chemistry and tailings
emplacement configuration, including the rate at which tailings are
covered with fresh material, among other parameters. There is
no certainty that the results reported herein will be realized in
an operating environment. Further studies are recommended to
expand the scale of testing to better understand the potential for
carbon sequestration to be realized in an operating
environment.
"FPX is very proud to be playing a leading role in applying
fundamental science to evaluate the potential for large-scale
permanent carbon capture and storage in the mining industry,"
commented Martin Turenne, FPX's
President and CEO. "With previous lab and field tests having
demonstrated the capacity of our Baptiste tailings to sequester
significant amounts of CO2 from direct air capture,
these new results enhance the ability to accelerate the rate of
carbon mineralization when injecting the material with
CO2 gas. This opens up the possibility of even
larger-scale CCS at the Project, further raising the potential for
development of a carbon-neutral or carbon-negative nickel mining
operation at Baptiste. It is important to note that the 2020
Baptiste preliminary economic assessment did not include the
benefit of any potential carbon sequestration; going forward, we
will be examining the incorporation of this potential into the
ultimate design plan for the Project."
These laboratory tests build on more than a decade of research
on technologies that maximize the reaction between CO2
and brucite (a highly CO2-reactive mineral form of
magnesium hydroxide) present in the Baptiste mine tailings.
In a natural process called carbon mineralization, CO2
reacts with brucite, and to a much less extent with serpentine
minerals, in the tailings and waste rock, binding the
CO2 in a benign, solid magnesium carbonate which is
stable on a geological time scale.
Previous laboratory and field tests conducted by UBC researchers
has confirmed the ability of Baptiste tailings material to
mineralize CO2 when exposed to air (see the Company's
news releases dated February 16 and
June 9, 2021). The primary
rate-limiting factor on the pace and amount of carbon sequestration
is the delivery of CO2 to the carbon-reactive minerals
(principally brucite) in the tailings. Carbon mineralization rates and magnitude can
be enhanced by increasing the supply rate of CO2 via the
injection of concentrated CO2 sources, such as diesel
flue gas, into the tailings material.
The laboratory-scale tests summarized herein were designed by
UBC to assess the effects of grain size and permeability, among
other variables, on the sequestration potential of Baptiste
material. Injection experiments were prepared by using a
combination of coarse- and fine-grained material in pipes which
were injected with simulated flue gas containing 10% CO2
over periods ranging from 8 to 18 days. The experiments were
conducted on Baptiste drill core pulps in batches weighing 0.5 to
1.9 kilograms, with brucite content of the fine-grained material of
12.8%, as compared to the estimated 1.5% average brucite content of
the Baptiste deposit.
In nine tests conducted during this round of research, the
coarse material (P80 3,500µm) and fine-grained material
(P80 250 µm) were combined at a 3:1 ratio of coarse to
fine, thereby enhancing both (a) permeability (with the coarse
material allowing circulation of CO2 within the
tailings); and (b) reactivity (with the fine material presenting a
greater surface of liberated brucite to increase the reaction with
the CO2).
The key findings of the experiment are as follows:
- Consistent rates of carbon mineralization were achieved in all
tests, ranging from 13.3 to 15.3 grams of CO2
sequestered for each kilogram of crushed Baptiste tailings with
tests varying between 8 to 18 days in length and subjected to
direct injection of 10% CO2 gas under a variety of
conditions of gas flux and permeability
- Significant rates of carbon mineralization were noted on a
continuous basis in all tests, with rates typically peaking on the
first day and declining over the course of the test
- Over 50% of the CO2 was mineralized in the first
2-to-4 days based on measurements of CO2 concentrations
at the inlet and the outlet
- The CO2 mineralization achieved during the tests is
both permanent and verifiable by two independent measurement
methods (see note on Verification Methodology below)
The positive findings of this experiment provide the basis for
additional testing to expand the understanding and optimization of
several key parameters affecting carbon mineralization in tailings,
including the impacts of scale, grain size, porosity, permeability,
moisture content, temperature, CO2 concentration in the
injected gas, and reactivity over longer time periods. Future
test work will underpin the Company's efforts to optimize these
parameters in the Baptiste development plan, including the
potential to utilize some combination of direct air capture and
CO2 injection to advance Baptiste as the nickel
industry's first carbon-neutral or carbon-negative operation. These
results also open the possibility of mineralizing CO2
ex-situ in waste rock, or in-situ by injection of CO2
into brucite-rich portions of the host rocks throughout the Decar
Nickel District.
Verification Methodology
Two methodologies were employed to confirm the amount of carbon
sequestered during the test program. Samples of the test
material were submitted for analysis of total inorganic carbon
("TIC") at the beginning and the end of the
experiments, with the increase in TIC representing the amount of
CO2 captured during the experiment. A mass balance
on the sequestered CO2 was also determined on a daily
basis by subtracting the effluent mass of CO2 from the
injected mass. Comparison of total captured
CO2 shows good agreement between the mass balance
and TIC measurement methodologies and provides greater assurance
regarding the measured rate of carbon capture and the use of TIC as
a verification method.
Next Steps
As previously disclosed, the Company is expanding the size and
scope of carbon sequestration testing, with the recent initiation
of two direct air capture experiments in the third quarter of
2021:
- Six-month experiment at a location in Vancouver on approximately 2.4 tonnes of
tailings material, or approximately eight times the scale of the
2020 experiment (see the Company's news release dated June 9, 2021).
- 1-year experiment at a location in central British Columbia on approximately 300 kg of
tailings material, designed to better understanding the longer-term
carbon sequestration potential of undisturbed tailings in the
Project region.
The Company will report the results of these experiments upon
the conclusion of testing in 2022.
Dr. Peter Bradshaw, P. Eng.,
FPX's Qualified Person under NI 43-101, has reviewed and approved
the technical content of this news release.
Webcast
The Company is pleased to report that it will be participating
in Renmark Financial Communications Inc.'s live Virtual Non-Deal
Roadshow Series to provide a Company overview and discuss its
future plans on Wednesday, November
3rd at 12:00 pm Eastern
time (9:00 am Pacific
time). FPX welcomes stakeholders, investors, and other
individual followers to register and attend this live event using
the following registration link:
https://www.renmarkfinancial.com/live-registration/renmark-virtual-non-deal-roadshow-tsx-v-fpx-2021-11-03-120000
About the Decar Nickel District
The Company's Decar Nickel District claims cover 245
km2 of the Mount Sidney Williams ultramafic/ophiolite
complex, 90 km northwest of Fort St.
James in central British
Columbia. The District is a two-hour drive from Fort St. James on a high-speed logging
road.
Decar hosts a greenfield discovery of nickel mineralization in
the form of a naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy called awaruite
(Ni3Fe), which is amenable to bulk-tonnage, open-pit
mining. Awaruite mineralization has been identified in four target
areas within this ophiolite complex, being the Baptiste Deposit,
and the B, Sid and Van targets, as confirmed by drilling in the
first three plus petrographic examination, electron probe analyses
and outcrop sampling on all four. Since 2010, approximately
US $24 million has been spent on the
exploration and development of Decar.
Of the four targets in the Decar Nickel District, the Baptiste
Deposit, which was initially the most accessible and had the
biggest known surface footprint, has been the focus of diamond
drilling since 2010, with a total of 82 holes and over 31,000
metres of drilling completed. The Sid target was tested with
two holes in 2010 and the B target had a single hole drilled in
2011; all three holes intersected nickel-iron alloy mineralization
over wide intervals with DTR nickel grades comparable to the
Baptiste Deposit. The Van target was not drill-tested at that
time as rock exposure was very poor prior to more recent logging
activity.
As reported in the current NI 43-101 resource estimate, having
an effective date of September 9,
2020, the Baptiste Deposit contains 1.996 billion tonnes of
indicated resources at an average grade of 0.122% DTR nickel,
containing 2.4 million tonnes of nickel, plus 593 million tonnes of
inferred resources with an average grade of 0.114% DTR nickel,
containing 0.7 million tonnes of nickel, both reported at a cut-off
grade of 0.06% DTR nickel. Mineral resources are not mineral
reserves and do not have demonstrated economic viability.
About FPX Nickel Corp.
FPX Nickel Corp. is focused on the exploration and development
of the Decar Nickel District, located in central British Columbia, and other occurrences of the
same unique style of naturally occurring nickel-iron alloy
mineralization known as awaruite.
On behalf of FPX Nickel Corp.
"Martin Turenne"
Martin Turenne, President, CEO and
Director
Forward-Looking Statements
Certain of the
statements made and information contained herein is considered
"forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable
Canadian securities laws. These statements address future events
and conditions and so involve inherent risks and uncertainties, as
disclosed in the Company's periodic filings with Canadian
securities regulators. Actual results could differ from those
currently projected. The Company does not assume the obligation to
update any forward-looking statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services
Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of
this release.
SOURCE FPX Nickel Corp.