The Elements of Innovation Discovered
The Elements of Innovation Discovered
Metal Tech News - January 1, 2025
Megaplant Executive Director Sahit Muja in a field of nickel-absorbing plants in Alabania's Tropoje region.
Metalplant is enhancing and accelerating natural processes by spreading crushed magnesium and nickel-enriched rocks mined from local quarries over the fields prior to planting.
A plant with golden flowers and a propensity to draw nickel up from the slopes of the European Alps in northern Albania is combatting climate change on two fronts – absorbing carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and providing a sustainable source of a key ingredient in electric vehicles batteries that help prevent CO2 emissions in the first place.
"These vibrant flowers, with their delicate petals and hues, harbor a powerful secret: they turn carbon dioxide into a transformative force for environmental good," David Greenberg penned in an article for Albanian Minerals.
To harvest this force, Albanian Minerals and Metalplant have developed a process that feeds these hyperaccumulators – plants that thrive on drawing up and storing metals from the soil – with magnesium- and nickel-rich rocks from nearby quarries.
The plants draw up the nickel into their biomass, which can then be harvested, and the magnesium-rich olivine mineral in the crushed rock absorbs CO2 from the atmosphere and stores it as a carbonate rock.
While nickel farming, formally known as phytomining, and the use of magnesium minerals to lock up CO2 are being pioneeredat separate locales elsewhere in the world, the Tropoje region of northern Albania is one of the only places where these climate technologies are being combined.
Metalplant is accelerating the natural nickel absorbing ability of the alpine plants and CO2 absorbing capacity of the Tropoje region's geology by crushing magnesium and nickel enriched rocks and spreading it across the fieldsof mainly Odontarrhena decipiens, a flowering native shrub with bright yellow flowers.
Metalplant is enhancing and accelerating natural processes by spreading crushed magnesium and nickel-enriched rocks mined from local quarries over the fields prior to planting.
"The technology employed by Metalplant mirrors the elegant processes found in nature. Our team has accelerated these natural reactions by optimizing conditions, making them millions of times faster than the enhanced weathering observed in nature," said Sahit Muja, a mining billionaire who is CEO of Albanian Minerals and executive director of Metalplant.
Metaplant expects to harvest roughly 400 kilograms of nickel per hectare (360 pounds per acre) of farmland. At the same time, the magnesium-rich supplement spread out over the soil will capture an estimated 200 metric tons of CO2.
The company is offering three climate change-combatting products from its phytomining operation in the European Alps of northern Albania:
• HyperNickel – Green nickel harvested from the hyperaccumulating plants.
• NegativeNickel – This combines the green nickel harvested from the plants with carbon removal credits from the CO2 stored in magnesium-rich soil supplements.
• HyperWeathering – Carbon removal credits from any CO2 stored in the soil supplement in excess of what is being attributed to NegativeNickel.
Metalplant says its HyperNickel is poised to become the greenest source of nickel for lithium-ion batteries, green steel, and other products.
"This groundbreaking endeavor marks a significant milestone in the green revolution," Muja said.
With more than 16 years of covering mining, Shane is renowned for his insights and and in-depth analysis of mining, mineral exploration and technology metals.
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