News: Latest

Late breaking news: due to indisposition, the speaker Evangelos Mouchos will not be able to travel from Cardiff today. We are however pleased that his colleague and collaborator in the work, Will Savage, will be presenting the talk on the current status of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies in EU and the UK, with particular focus on enhanced weathering of rocks and mine wastes.

All other information remains the same (the venue RCA, behind Plas Mawr in Conwy, will be open from 18:00 for refreshments and chat).

Will Savage graduated as a Chemical Engineer from the University of Swansea in 2023, joining Mine Environment Management Ltd. (MEM) straight after graduating.   In the two years since, Will has been heavily involved in the EU C-SINK project, specifically working on the design of monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) pre-CEN standards for enhanced weathering, while supporting project partners with pre-CEN standards on six other carbon dioxide removal technologies (including biochar, afforestation and biological fixation).

Will has been working alongside Swedish C-SINK partner BioSteam on MRV development, and the wider MEM team on both lab and field experimentation to quantify carbon dioxide removal efficiencies of mine waste. He has presented work on CO₂ and O₂ mass flux in mine waste at BC Mend conference in Vancouver; at the International Conference on Acid Rock Drainage (ICARD) in Nova Scotia; delivered a C-SINK workshop on MRV of enhanced weathering as a carbon dioxide removal technology, in Bruges; and is due to present an update of this work at the Advances in Mining Technology Conference in Birmingham next month.

Thursday 20th February 2025
Evangelos Mouchos will deliver a talk on the current status of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies in EU and the UK, with particular focus on enhanced weathering of rocks and mine wastes.
Evangelos is Senior Research Geoscientist Scientist with Mine Environment Management Ltd. and Senior Research Associate in the School of Geographical Sciences at the University of Bristol. Evangelos is currently working on the C-SINK and CO2RE UK/EU greenhouse gas removal interdisciplinary research projects. These focus on the Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies, including enhanced rock weathering. The aim of his research is to add new scientific insights to the collective learning and understanding of natural processes and the impacts of anthropogenic activities on Earth, linking geoscience to decision-making on aspects relevant to sustainable resource management and environmental protection.
He is a geologist by background, having over 10 years’ research experience in the mineralogy and geochemistry of critical raw materials and nutrients, with a particular focus on rock-water interactions and mineral precipitation/dissolution controls in natural or anthropogenically intervened systems. His work typically combines field and macroscopic observations with mineralogical and chemical analyses, and is commonly carried out in collaboration with industry, academia and government agencies.
Evangelos holds a PhD in Geography from the University of Bristol, an MSc by research in Geology from the University of Exeter, and a BSc in Geology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece).

Thursday January 16th, 2 short talks:
1) The role of Environmental Social Governance
2) A potential Carbon Capture & Store project for South Wales
18:00 for 18:30, Royal Cambrian Academy, Conwy, LL32 8AN (behind Plas Mawr).

On Wednesday December 11th  we will hold our Christmas social, with a talk by Rob Marsden on “Valuation of mining projects and the role of geological resource uncertainty”. The venue (upstairs at the RCA, Conwy) will be open from 18:00 for mince pies and seasonal cheer. The talk will commence when everyone is ready. We’re looking forward to welcoming you for an evening of convivial chat and a stimulating talk.

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Professor Mark Macklin will present ‘From the Industrial Revolution to the ‘green’ energy transition: impacts of metal mining on global river systems’, a talk which will consider legacy mining issues both in Wales and worldwide. The RCA will be open from 18:00 for refreshments and the talk will commence at 18:30.
Professor Macklin is Distinguished Professor of River Systems and Global Change, Director of the Lincoln Centre for Water and Planetary Health, Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Lincoln.
Talk abstract:
The global transition to renewable energy and pursuit of net zero carbon dioxide emissions is driving substantial demand for a wide range of energy transition metals and minerals. This in turn is projected to increase mine waste generation, for metals used in batteries (Cu, Li, Mn, and Ni), which could generate up to 2 trillion tonnes of tailings and waste rock between 2020 and 2050. This places greater pressure on land and other natural resources, notably water at the source of extraction, as well as significantly increasing the risk of river pollution and its impact on ecosystem and human health. In this talk, these issues are discussed from both a local (Welsh) and global perspective, including the continued and growing impacts of the remobilization of mining waste stored in river channels and floodplain downstream from disused mines, which is happening more frequently as the result of increased flooding caused by climate change. A new process-based mapping and modelling tool is outlined that will enable the mining industry, government, regulators, and local authority to assess the environmental and health risk posed by past and present mining activities in river systems, as well as providing management options.

Ricki Walker will preview his presentation to GEO4.0: “Automated pore-size distribution and characterisation from whole thin section image mosaics”.