9 Reviews in Mineralogy & Geochemistry Vol. 77 pp. 305-360, 2013 Copyright © Mineralogical Society of America 1529-6466/13/0077-0009$05.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.2138/rmg.2013.77.9 Carbon Mineralization: From Natural Analogues to Engineered Systems Ian M. Power, Anna L. Harrison, Gregory M. Dipple* Mineral Deposit Research Unit, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada *gdipple@eos.ubc.ca Siobhan A. Wilson School of Geosciences, Monash University Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia Peter B. Kelemen Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory Columbia University Palisades, New York 10964, U.S.A. Michael Hitch Norman B. Keevil Institute of Mining Engineering The University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada Gordon Southam School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland Brisbane, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia INTRODUCTION Carbon mineralization sequesters CO 2 by reaction of alkaline earth metal bearing silicate and hydroxide minerals with CO 2 to form stable carbonate minerals. Seifritz (1990) proposed harnessing this natural process as a method for sequestration of anthropogenic CO 2 . It was irst studied in detail as an industrial process by Lackner et al. (1995), which is often referred to as “mineral carbonation.” Much of this early research aimed to capitalize on the globally abundant natural deposits of ultramaic and maic rocks, which are rich in alkaline earth metals, in addition to the long-term stability of the resultant carbonate minerals (Lackner et al. 1995). More recently, other process routes have been investigated that rely on feedstocks other than naturally occurring minerals (e.g., industrial wastes) as a source of cations for carbonate precipitation. Therefore, we use the more general term “carbon mineralization” to refer to any process that sequesters CO 2 as a solid carbonate phase. The main advantages of carbon mineralization as a CO 2 storage method are that the reactions are thermodynamically favored, the carbonation processes can be readily controlled and manipulated, and the resulting product is benign and stable over geological time. We begin this review with an overview of the fundamental processes that are relevant to carbon mineralization, which provides a basic framework in which to understand CO 2