Mineralogical and geomicrobial assessment of carbonation potential in kimberlite mine tailings

This is part of a collaborative research project between Monash, the University of Queensland and the De Beers Group of Companies.

De Beers has requested that I invoice them for $23,000 as part of research that has been ongoing in 2017. $15k are to be transfered to me and $8k to Prof Gordon Southam, School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, UQ. Most of the work has been completed, but funding was not available to cover my research costs, and costs incurred by my collaborator at UQ, until recently.

We are working with De Beers to develop new carbon accounting methods and acceleration strategies for CO2 sequestration that require fundamental and applied R&D work. This is building toward a long term collaboration and major funding.

Background IP has been published in the scientific literature (common practice for Earth scientists working on climate change mitigation). Our contact at De Beers, Dr Evelyn Mervine, has confirmed that all IP rests with the universities and we are free to publish our results.

This work is part of De Beers' Project Minera and will scale up with further funding in 2018: https://www.debeersgroup.com/en/news/company-news/company-news/de-beers-pioneers-research-programme-to-make-carbon-neutral-mini.html

Email confirmation of the funding from Dr Mervine is attached. Also attached, is an An abstract, coauthored by my colleagues, De Beers scientists and me is also attached. The results described will be published in the scientific literature as part of our collaboration. A quote, for internal De Beers use to facilitate invoicing, is also attached in addition to the short proposal.