Research summary
Mineral resources are critical to Canada’s economic prosperity. But balancing the often-competing needs of industry, government, communities and the environment when extracting resources remains a significant challenge. As Canada Research Chair in Biogeochemistry of Sustainable Mineral Resources, Dr. Sean A. (Sasha) Wilson is developing new earth systems approaches to economic geology (which focuses on earth materials that can be used for economic or industrial development purposes) to support the clean energy transition.
He and his research team are exploring the use of carbon mineralization as a better way to recover critical metals. They are also developing new strategies that use non-traditional minerals to sequester carbon while storing carbon dioxide in the most stable possible minerals. Their research will uncover ways to build more sustainable mines that can recover more of the critical metals we need while producing less waste and removing carbon dioxide pollution from the atmosphere.