Loading...
Characterization of mafic and ultramafic rocks in the subsurface in the Grand Island mining district, Boulder County, Colorado, to estimate the carbonation potential for CO₂ sequestration
Riley, Matthew Kyle
Riley, Matthew Kyle
Citations
Altmetric:
Advisor
Editor
Date
Date Issued
2024
Date Submitted
Collections
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Embargo Expires
Abstract
Carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a promising strategy to mitigate climate change by reducing atmospheric CO₂ levels. Carbon mineralization, a subset of CCS, involves the reaction of CO₂ with magnesium-, calcium- and iron-rich silicate minerals to form stable carbonate minerals. Assessing a site's suitability for carbonation is crucial to ensure efficient and secure CO2 storage while mitigating potential environmental and safety risks. It is the aim of this study to develop a workflow that is fast, reliable and easy to use to characterize the subsurface and to estimate the carbonation potential.
The Grand Island Mining District in Boulder County, Colorado features the Caribou Stock: an igneous intrusion host to numerous mafic and ultramafic lithologies that could potentially be utilized for carbon mineralization. However, the presence and distribution of CO2-reactive minerals is not well understood. This study applies a newly developed workflow to understand the nature, occurrence, and distribution of igneous lithologies and CO2-reactive minerals in the Grand Island Mining District and to assess its suitability for carbon mineralization. Seven hundred fifty meters of representative drill core were taken to characterize the igneous lithologies, geochemistry and mineralogy at the Caribou stock. Continuous X-ray fluorescence (XRF) core scanning was utilized to obtain high-resolution geochemical data, which were analyzed using cluster analysis to select twenty representative sub-samples. These samples were investigated using quantitative automated mineralogy and field and emission-scanning electron microscopy imaging and semi-quantitative chemical analysis to understand the dominant igneous lithologies and their constituent minerals and mineral formulae.
A versatile normative calculation workflow was developed to characterize the subsurface mineralogy, enabling the precise quantification of mineral abundances and their distribution.
Associated Publications
Rights
Copyright of the original work is retained by the author.