The Overall Potential of CO2 Capture and Mineralization of Regional Mineral Tailings—A Case Study in Sichuan Province, China

The utilization of mineral carbon sequestration technology has emerged as a promising approach for mitigating CO2 emissions in recent years. This study aimed to assess the carbon sequestration potential of mineral tailings across the administrative divisions of Sichuan Province, including prefectures and cities. The approach outlined in the IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories and an enhanced version of Steinour’s equation was employed to compute the aggregate carbon emissions. It was found that the current total amount of stockpiled tailings is 570.79 million m3. The cumulative quantity of carbon sequestered through this process amounts to 115.25 million metric tons for a region such as Sichuan Province. When analyzing smaller regions, the tailings sands located in Panzhihua were found to have the capacity to sequester approximately 93.05 million metric tons of carbon. Among the various minerals, vanadium–titanium magnetite demonstrated the highest theoretical carbon sequestration potential, estimated at 0.716 metric tons per metric ton. The utilization of tailings sands containing calcium oxide (CaO), magnesium oxide (MgO), sodium oxide (Na2O), potassium oxide (K2O), sulfur trioxide (SO3), and other constituents for capture and sequestration through mineralization offers notable economic advantages and better practical feasibility. Additionally, this approach can effectively lower sequestration costs and considerably enhance economic competitiveness.