A climate solution you might not think of.

Climate solutions are desperately needed right now. You might not immediately think of going to the mining industry to find one of them though. But research shows shows that the unwanted by-product of the mining industry, rock dust, could be a transformational supplement to agricultural soils all over the world.

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Video Transcripts available at our website

Research Links

Footage at 2:33 Courtesy of the McCoy Corporation

Anthropocene Article by Emma Bryce

Anthropocene Article by Dan Ferber

Leverhulme Centre for Climate Mitigation

2022 Leverhulme Paper

2020 Leverhulme Paper

DACCS

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[dominicuhelski]

I've done research into this technique for a graduate global biogeochemistry class project and at the time I did not consider using mine tailings as a source. I concluded that quarrying virgin basalt along with thorough crushing and logistics would make it a poor solution. While tailings usage avoids some costs compared to virgin rock, one big issue with all ERW is the possibility of introducing heavy metals to farmland and the biosphere overall. These heavy metals are a big part of the reason that mine tailings are environmentally hazardous in the first place. There are rock formations that contain low heavy metals and higher plant nutrients such as phosphorus, however it is unlikely any given mine tailings will have these desirable chemistries given that mining typically extracts metal rich ores as a matter of course.

[lisasherper]

I put two tons of rock dust from a local quarry on our garden last year. It's a very inexpensive way to increase minerals in the soil and is recommended by regenerative soil experts. This is something everyone who has a small amount of land can do.

[neilstoddart]

First came across this in the 1980’s in Scotland as a soil improvement for crop growth on small holdings. This was prior to climate change science warnings and seemed like a luxury in comparison to a bit of muck spreading. However, as a Climate change mitigator along with soil improvement, it could be beneficial to bring back exhausted soils or marginal land into productive use. Especially at this moment when we are experiencing food scarcity scares.

[b_uppy]

Walter Jehne suggested we try a three prong approach to climate warming and it was simply to do global cooling of the most benign sort. He suggested we do rainwater harvesting, through simple earthworks, regreening with appropriate, diverse plantings, and sequestering carbon into the topsoil via those same plantings and reversing damage done to soil biomes by quitting chemical inputs. These three prongs work together to increase the albedo effect, while also enhancing each prong's ability to function optimally.
Nice thing about it is it is cheap, low tech, safe and reduces a lot of damage, too, while supporting all life in an ethical manner...

[guillermodelnoche]

This is a similar concept to the gentleman who put iron dust into the ocean. This fed the plankton all the way up to larger fish. It had an enormous carbon capture and increased the fishing yield from 50 million to 225 million fish. This was a microscopic attempt that showed phenomenal results. His video is on YouTube. I’d love to see you talk about this process.

[wrightgregson]

i think you are one of the very best presenters out there. Mellow voice, good accent (and understandable) good speaking speed. Etc etc etc.

[jamesmungall]

Most mine tailings are low grade equivalents of the ore and therefore are rich in contaminants like heavy metals, arsenic, and acid-generating sulfide minerals like pyrite. Spreading this material on farm fields would be lunacy. A bit like spreading sewage sludge which has turned out to be an environment disaster due to its contained load of contaminants. If we are going to use tailings for carbon capture it will have to be done someplace other than the farms. Yes it’s a good way to mineralize CO2, but farms are the wrong place to do it.

[rmar]

Hi Dave, one of the things I’m passionate about is using electrolysis to accrete minerals onto a steel structure for the purpose of repairing or creating new coral reefs.

I believe this method has a great potential to store huge quantities of carbon in the form of calcium carbonate. Furthermore, it creates an ideal habitat for soft corals and macro algae to grow, thus pulling even more carbon from the world’s oceans. These repaired or newly created reefs provide much needed nurseries for marine ecosystems and will help revive dwindling fish populations caused through over fishing. In turn helping to feed an ever growing world population.

Hoping to see you do a video on this topic. Would be amazing to see what data you can find.

[MegaSnail]

Thank you so much for sharing this research which sounds like a win, win, win for the soil, the farmers and the planet. You cheer me up with all of your fine research. Be well.

[adodgygeeza]

Sticking it into the ocean directly doesn't really have issues with heaby metals as it just gets diluted out.

The choice of pulverising technology is can also make significant differences to the cost enough to make using virgin rock feasible.

[adrleao]

1st of all, thanks for the amazing content! One thought I have is: it wasn't mentioned but crushing rocks (like basalt) into fine powders to increase surface area takes energy exponentially at each "step" of fineness

[Xanderbelle]

Some bloke did the same thing with iron rich mine tailings but straight into the ocean off the coast of Brazil (i think)
Algae/seaweed and fish populations mushroomed.

[havenbastion]

All that rock dust was already sequestered carbon before it was removed from the ground.

[michaeldelisieux]

Howdy! My first stop here, at this Channel! What an auspicious idea : the best of both worlds!
Thank you for your concise and precise presentation!

[SR-umzt]

This works best for serpentinized rock, specifically rock high in brucite. Ultramafic nickel deposits are the most likely candidate for this type of method being implemented successfully with tailings

[acmefixer]

I've read about spreading crushed rock on farmlands a few years ago, but nothing has been heard about it until now.

The trace minerals in the crushed basalt can contain heavy metals that could poison the soil. Here we have runoff from cropland that has high amounts of selenium, and causes birth defects in the waterfowl that nest near the runoff.

[stunlord]

Near 6:55 you mention how farm land would improve through an increase in Magnesium, Copper, etc, but it is to my understanding that it is extremely unlikely for farms to have an deffiecency in these things, but instead to have a defficiency in microbes that can make them accessible to plants or fungi. However, ironically, the type of large scale farms that use sprayers typically have troubles with keeping high microbacteria due to some of the faults of traditional agriculture, so the types of farms it would help perhaps wouldn't see that much of an improvement. Is the type of production soluable to the plants already without the help of a bacteria?

[gregmcdonald]

I think this is a promising concept that requires a lot of number crunching and review of the risks associated with such an approach.
Firstly, silicosis is a real risk today for communities living near to mines and quarries. Start shipping the fines around the countryside and exposure risk rapidly spreads far and wide. Secondly, as the approach incorporates an inherent natural leaching of the carbonates to eventually sequester in oceans, we have to consider the pathway - Rivers. Australian freshwater ecosystems, often naturally acidic are already suffering an excess of carbonates resulting from leaching concrete infrastructure. Answers are are never simple no matter what the proponents may claim.

[michaelstephens]

As a rock hound, I always knew that like many of life’s puzzles, this one could be easily solved by collecting more rocks

[gamingtonight]

As JHAT proves every week, we have left it so long, there is always a catch-22 "wrinkle" at the end of these videos!