*OMAN'S PLANET OSCARS*

OMAN's  rocks could help save the planet. And this is what is happening at the operational research level :

DR. Professor Peter B. Kelemen. a Columbia University geologist believes that the rocks in Oman, and elsewhere, could be useful in removing carbon dioxide from the air. 

But quarrying and grinding operations of the scale required would be hugely expensive, scar the landscape and produce enormous carbon dioxide emission of its own.

So a few researchers have suggest using rocks that that have already been quarried and ground up for other purposes.

Such rocks are found in large amounts of  at mines around the world, as waste tailings.

Plutonium, nickel and diamonds, in particular are mined from rock that has a lot of carbon-mineralization  potential. 

George Dipple, a researcher at the  University of  British Columbia was has been studying mine tailings for more than a decade, said he found evidence early on that-

Waste Rocks was forming carbonate without any human intervention. ''It was clear it was taking  CO2 from the air,'' he said.

Dr. Dipple is now working with several mining companies and studying ways to improve upon the natural process.

The goal would be to capture at least enough carbon dioxide to fully offset a mine's carbon emissions, which typically come from from trucks and on-site power generation.

Evelyn Mervine, who has worked with Dr. Dipple and Dr. Kelemen and now works for De Beers, the world's largest diamond company, is studying a similar approach and hopes by nest year to conduct trials at one or more of the company's mines.

''Relative to  Global problems, it's just really a drop in the bucket,'' Dr. Mervine said. ''But it sets a really good precedent.''

!WOW! wishes the researchers well with every success.