GEOLOGICAL STUDIES
How tailings dumps can be valued assets
Tailings dumps could have a lucrative future in carbon storage
Tailings dumps, a long-standing environmental problem for companies mining diamonds from kimberlites, could potentially become one of their most important assets as industries worldwide are forced to rein in their carbon footprint. Work is under way by scientists employed by diamond group De Beers to prove the company’s tailings dumps can be used to store carbon. Minerals brought up millions of years ago from deep beneath the earth’s surface in volcanic pipes called kimberlites can be used to capture carbon and make diamond mines carbon-neutral at best or even carbon-negative. "Imagine one day that our mines could be carbon-neutral and the only source of carbon leaving those mines is the diamonds we produce," says Deirdre Lingenfelder, head of safety and sustainable development at De Beers. Rocks, known as ultramafic rocks, were brought to surface from deep within the earth’s mantle and have displayed carbon-capturing properties because of their mineral composition. These charmingly...
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