Latest news with #EmissionsReductionAlberta
Calgary Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Alberta government commits $50M to bolster tailings pond reclamation technology
The Alberta government has announced a $50-million Tailings Technology Challenge, a funding competition that aims to drive the development of technologies that reduce oilsands mine water and help reclaim tailings ponds. Article content The awarded funds will range from $1 million to $15 million, with the award accounting for no more than 50 per cent of an application's total budget. Article content Article content Article content 'Like all of our funding, the private sector has to be at the table and always do, often by far more than our minimum requirement,' said Justin Riemer, the CEO of Emissions Reduction Alberta, the organization in charge of allocating the funds. Riemer said the criteria are intentionally broad. Water treatment, tailing mitigation, and improved monitoring systems are all eligible in the competition. Article content Article content Frank Gu hopes to be one of the selected applicants. He is a chemistry professor at the University of Toronto, and has been researching tailings for a decade. He is also the co-founder of H2nanO, a company currently developing solar-powered floating materials to purify tailing water. Article content Gu sees the tailings pond problem as twofold given the water's complexity and the sheer scale of the issue. Article content Article content The province's tailings ponds currently contain 1.4 billion cubic metres of fluid tailings and more than 390 thousand cubic metres of water, according to Rebecca Schulz, Alberta's minister of environment. Article content 'Collecting more and more water, with no end in sight, is not sustainable. We don't believe it's sustainable, and the companies don't believe it is sustainable,' Schulz said. Article content Article content 'The vast majority of the components in there, if not the majority, are not harmful to wildlife,' Gu said. 'So the challenging part is, how do you separate the piece that needs to be treated? But at this moment, there's no federal or provincial regulation in place to say what needs to be treated, or what to target.' Article content That problem is compounded by the wide differences between each pond. Sites age with their own environments over time, making each tailings pond unique, and the challenges they represent unable to be generalized.
Globe and Mail
5 days ago
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Alberta to invest $50-million to help develop oil sands water, tailings technologies
Alberta has earmarked $50-million to boost technologies that can help reduce and manage the massive oil sands tailings ponds in the province's north. The cash for the new program, announced Tuesday, will come from the province's carbon price on large emitters. The program will be managed by Emissions Reduction Alberta through a competition for private companies to develop new and existing technologies that make tailings and water treatment cheaper and more effective. Successful applicants can receive up to $15-million per project, with a minimum funding request of $1-million. Emissions Reduction Alberta, which distributes government funds to help innovators develop and demonstrate Alberta-based technologies that lower emissions and costs for industries, will contribute no more than half to any single project. Tailings are a by-product of the process used to extract bitumen from mined oil sands, and are a mixture of sand, clay, water, silt, residual bitumen and other hydrocarbons, salts and trace metals. The issue of how to deal with them has bedevilled Alberta for years. There are roughly 1.4 million cubic metres of fluid tailings and more than 390 million cubic metres of water in ponds in the oil sands region. Although some ponds have been reclaimed, the volume of tailings continues to grow, in part because any water captured on a site must be kept there – even if it's snow melt or rain that hasn't been used in the mining process. Alberta fails to move needle on emissions reduction plan Remediating oil sands mines could cost $130-billion, according to a 2018 internal Alberta Energy Regulator memo, though in an official estimate the regulator puts the cost around $34-billion. Managing tailings is a complex problem, Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz said at a Tuesday press conference at the University of Calgary, where she announced the $50-million program. Not only do they create an environmental and financial liability, she said, they also take water permanently out of the system, preventing it from being used by others who need it. Some companies use internal water recycling at their sites that surpass 90 per cent, saving millions of litres from ending up in a tailings pond. And the sector has invested billions of dollars into testing ways to adapt and develop new water treatment technologies, Ms. Schulz said. Oil sands CEOs optimistic for movement on $16-billion carbon capture project But that work needs to shift into overdrive: 'We need more advanced technologies to help reduce, treat and manage mine water,' she said. Justin Riemer, chief executive of Emissions Reduction Alberta, said at the press conference that the $50-million competition is designed to hasten pilot programs and deployment of the most promising solutions. It will be focused on technologies that treat oil sands waste water, accelerate and lower the costs of land reclamation, and reduce the use of fresh water in oil sands operations. Kendall Dilling, president of the Pathways Alliance, a group of oil sands companies that have pledged to bring production to net-zero by 2050, said at the press conference that the program will play an important role in addressing the tailings issue. But, he added, companies will continue to use a vast array of tools to deal with tailings, including sharing water between mine sites to minimize new withdrawals from the Athabasca River. The oil sands sector has been waiting for more than a decade for a treat-and-release regulation from the federal government, similar to policies that govern other mining industries. Ms. Schulz said she had some productive conversations with former federal environment minister Steven Guilbeault about the tailings issue, but she has not yet spoken with his replacement, Julie Dabrusin. Multiple cases of spills and leaks from tailings ponds have been reported by oil companies in recent years. At Imperial Oil Ltd.'s Kearl site, a long-running leak has resulted in an unknown volume of tailings leeching into the environment. A drainage storage pond at the site also overflowed, spilling roughly 5.3 million litres of industrial waste water laced with pollutants into the environment, and another incident sent thousands of litres of water from a settling pond into the Muskeg River. In April, 2023, almost six million litres of water with more than twice the legal limit of suspended solids was released from a pond at Suncor's Fort Hills oil sands project into the Athabasca River watershed. A recent study by an Alberta ecologist found that the province's energy regulator lacks the data required to assess and manage the environmental impact of tailings spills, and has underestimated the number and volumes of spills in the oil sands.
Calgary Herald
6 days ago
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Parker: Calgary firm Carbon Upcycling turns industrial waste into valuable cement products
Article content Calgary-based Carbon Upcycling is making great strides in its mission to convert carbon emissions and industrial waste byproducts into valuable, local materials for low-carbon cement production. Its groundbreaking technology offers a productive solution for CO2 emissions and industrial waste materials by upcycling them into low-carbon supplementary cement products. Article content Article content In the few years since it was launched in 2015, the company has attracted the interest of a large number of major cement companies and has forged a strategic partnership with TITAN Group, one of the world's leading international businesses in the building and infrastructure materials industry. Article content The companies entered a memorandum of agreement earlier this month to explore the commercial development of Carbon Upcycling's technology for producing local, low-carbon building materials. The collaboration builds on TITAN's earlier investment in the Calgary company and underscores both companies' shared commitment to accelerating the decarbonization of the building materials industry. Article content 'Expanding the scope of our partnership with Carbon Upcycling from investment to project exploration aims to scale up production of innovative, high-performance cementitious solutions in line with our Green Growth Strategy 2026,' says Leonidas Canellopoulos, chief sustainability and innovation officer of TITAN Group. 'This initiative not only highlights the importance of localized production but also serves as an important model for integrating low-carbon solutions into mainstream industrial processes.' Article content Article content The scientist with the vision of an inclusive, equitable world where carbon is a sustainable resource — shaping the future of humanity — is Apoorv Sinha, co-founder and CEO of Carbon Upcycling. Article content Born in Baha, a small province in the northeast area of India, he was brought up in Kuwait where his father had moved the family to work in the oil and gas industry. Sinha's education took him to the U.S., where he earned his chemical engineering degree at Georgia Institute of Technology. Article content He says he was attracted to Calgary as an energy hub with a reputation for innovation — a good place to build a business. In 2014, along with a couple of friends, they entered an Emissions Reduction Alberta challenge for the most innovative technologies that would convert CO2 emissions into valuable products.
Hamilton Spectator
02-05-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Lancaster Appoints Andrew Watson as President & CEO
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Lancaster Resources Inc. (CSE:LCR | OTC Pink:LANRF | FRA:6UF0) ('Lancaster' or the 'Company') is pleased to announce the appointment of Andrew Watson as its President and Chief Executive Officer, effective May 1, 2025. Highlights: 'Uranium and lithium are essential to the global energy transition, while gold remains a vital store of value,' says Andrew Watson, Lancaster President and CEO. 'Lancaster is building a well-balanced exploration portfolio across critical minerals and precious metals, with projects located in geologically rich and politically stable regions. I'm proud to lead our team as we advance high-potential assets and deliver long-term value to shareholders.' About Andrew Watson Andrew Watson, P. Eng., brings over 23 years of multifaceted experience in engineering, operations, and corporate strategy across the critical mineral, precious metal, energy, and clean technology sectors. He has been a director of the Company since March 2024. Since joining Lancaster in June 2023 as Vice President, Engineering & Operations, Mr. Watson has played a transformative role in repositioning the Company as a dynamic exploration platform focused on both critical minerals essential to the energy transition—including lithium and uranium—and strategic precious metals like gold. Mr. Watson has led the acquisition and technical advancement of all of Lancaster's gold assets, including the 100%-owned Piney Lake Gold Project in Saskatchewan and the Lake Cargelligo Gold Project in New South Wales, Australia (subject to definitive agreement). He was also instrumental in the Company's acquisition and early-stage development of uranium assets at Catley Lake and Centennial East, located in Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin, the most prolific uranium-producing region in the world. Prior to Lancaster, Mr. Watson served as Chief Operating Officer at Prism Diversified, where he directed technical development across over 850 square miles of lithium brine (~10.6MM T-LCE, non-compliant),battery metals, and an iron ore deposit with ~219MM tonnes Iron and Vanadium I+I. He oversaw engineering and metallurgical studies focused on the low-impact extraction of critical minerals such as vanadium, titanium, and iron, contributing to sustainable development strategies in the battery metals sector. At Hyak Energy, Mr. Watson managed the operations of a 60-million-barrel medium crude oil field in Saskatchewan. Using an Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer (ASP) chemical enhanced oil recovery method, he helped increase production by over 250%, ultimately supporting a successful corporate sale in early 2020. Beyond project development, Mr. Watson is a recognized mentor and innovator in the clean technology ecosystem. He has mentored over 50 early-stage companies through Foresight Cleantech Accelerator and Emissions Reduction Alberta, supporting commercialization strategies in mining, energy, and emissions reduction technologies. Mr. Watson holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calgary and has completed numerous advanced certifications in energy systems, resource project development, and sustainable operations. His cross-sector expertise positions him uniquely to lead Lancaster through its next stage of growth as it advances a diversified portfolio aligned with global priorities in clean energy, supply security, and resource sustainability. Leadership Transition Penny White, Lancaster's founder and former CEO, has stepped down and remains a Director of the Company, supporting long-term strategy and capital markets engagement. About Lancaster Resources Inc. Lancaster Resources Inc. (CSE:LCR) is a Canadian exploration company advancing a diversified portfolio of critical mineral and precious metal assets. The Company owns a 100% interest in the Piney Lake Gold Project in Saskatchewan and holds 100% of the Catley Lake and Centennial East uranium projects in the Athabasca Basin. Lancaster also has options to acquire lithium assets in North America and has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the Lake Cargelligo Gold Project in New South Wales, Australia. Andrew Watson, P. Eng., President & Chief Executive Officer, Lancaster Resources Inc. andrew@ Tel: 604 923 6100 The Canadian Securities Exchange has not reviewed, approved nor disapproved the contents of this news release. Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements contained in this press release constitute forward-looking information. These statements relate to future events, or Lancaster's future performance. The use of any of the words 'could', 'expect', 'believe', 'will', 'projected', 'estimated' and similar expressions and statements relating to matters that are not historical facts are intended to identify forward-looking information and are based on Lancaster's current belief or assumptions as to the outcome and timing of such future events. Actual future results may differ materially. In particular, the ability of Lancaster to execute its exploration plans, ability to complete the acquisition of the Lake Cargelligo Gold Project, raise capital, retain key personnel, identify, acquire, explore, and develop high-quality mineral-rich properties constitute forward-looking information. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by forward-looking information. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The statements made in this press release are made as of the date hereof. Lancaster disclaims any intention or obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be expressly required by applicable securities laws.
