The Frontier advance market commitment and Carbon Removal Canada, in partnership with the DuGrisAuVert ecosystem, are launching the Quebec Surficial Mineralization Hub in Thetford Mines.
Envisioned to serve as a testing center for surficial mineralization designs, this hub represents the first facility of this kind on a global level.
Natural mineralization is a slow process in which certain types of rocks absorb CO2 when exposed to air and water, locking it away permanently in the shape of stable carbonate minerals.
The surficial mineralization approach accelerates this process, compressing millennia of carbon removal into decades.
In its 2025 annual letter, Frontier shared a hypothesis that surficial mineralization may be able to deliver hundreds of gigatons of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) at costs reaching <$80/ton.
The reasoning behind this hypothesis is the fact that the rock feedstock needed for surfical mineralization is abundantly available and is already being processed affordably and at scale by the mining industry.
Pressure tests performed by Frontier have shown that serpentinite rocks rank as the optimal feedstock for this CDR approach due to their availability and CO2-absorbing effectiveness.
Once the most suitable rock was identified, Frontier also mapped out the accessible deposits around the world that have the potential to scale to “teratons” (trillions of tons) of carbon removal.
The Canadian province of Quebec holds 800 Mt of serpentinite rock that is already mined and accessible, representing one of the largest mined deposits in the world.
Relevant: Arca And Carbon Direct Team Up On Scaling Industrial Mineralization
As a region whose economy was historically built on asbestos mining, Thetford Mines is home to a large portion of these serpentinite rock tailings.
The Quebec Surficial Mineralization Hub will have access to 10,000 tons of serpentinite tailings, providing a space for pilot-scale testing of surficial mineralization.
Additionally, the site will collaborate with local labs to provide research teams with specialized equipment to develop and demonstrate mineralization processes.
With this facility, Frontier and Carbon Removal Canada are creating a controlled testing environment with permitting and social licenses already in place, allowing new teams to test innovations in safe and controlled conditions.
The hub is now looking for companies working on surficial mineralization, and interested parties can learn more on this link.
Read more: New Whitepaper Outlines Major CDR Scaling Opportunities Via Industrial Mineralization
