An artist’s impression of Mayur Resource’s Central Cement and Lime (CCL) project in Papua New Guinea. Source: Mayur Resources
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  • Papua New Guinea-focused Mayur Resources (MRL) has a number of diversified assets spread across the country
  • Chief among them is the proposed Central Cement and Lime (CCL) project, which is likely to be emission intensive
  • Following two key board appointments, the company has commissioned a review of its operations given “a significantly more carbon conscious world”
  • Such a review could look at the emergence of new technologies, including the conversion of COinto solid limestone, potentially boosting supplies and revenue
  • MRL shares closed the week at 25.5 cents

People who know nothing about the Chinese language often say that the word for “crisis” is the same as the word for “opportunity”. It’s a gross oversimplification of a complex language and largely untrue, but the philosophical logic behind it is sound.

That logic finds itself most at home these days among issues such as climate change.

So if climate change is the crisis, what’s the opportunity? That’s the question Mayur Resources (MRL), which listed on the ASX in 2017, is asking. 

In mid-September, the diversified Papua New Guinea-focused company — which has interests in cement, lime, iron, industrial sands, energy, copper and gold — announced two key board appointments. 

Charles Fear, co-founder of Argonaut Limited and former Managing Director of Investment Banking at CIBC World Markets, has come on as Non-Executive Chairman. Meanwhile Chris Indermaur has taken a position as Non-Executive Director, bringing with him more than 30 years of experience in engineering, law and other commercial roles.

Under their leadership the company has commissioned an independent review, “with a focus to ensure the business is optimally positioned to develop its projects whilst taking advantage of the work being done to meet the reality of a significantly more carbon conscious world”.

The announcement about their appointment additionally said: “The strategic review will in part examine the carbon reduction, renewable energy and recyclable energy opportunities available to our projects and as complementary future business opportunities to best position Mayur in the sectors in which it operates.”

We won’t know the results of the review until later this year. However, reading between the lines, we can perhaps glean a few cautious predictions.

In 2016, a cohort of researchers from around the world — including Gudni Axelsson of Curtin University in Perth — published a study called “Rapid carbon mineralisation for permanent disposal of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions”.

In it they described a new method of carbon capture and storage (CCS) by converting COinto solid limestone in just two years. That compares to an earlier timeframe of between 1000 and 10,000 years.

CO2 — captured from various sources — is dissolved in water and pumped into volcanic basalt rocks. Here it begins its transformation into calcium carbonate, or limestone, which can be safely stored as solid rock.

This might be interesting for Mayur, which owns (among other assets) the proposed Central Cement and Lime (CCL) project 25 kilometres northwest of Port Moresby. According to Mayur’s website, the vertically integrated project has the capacity to supply 100 per cent of Papua New Guinea’s cement, clinker and quicklime requirements, with further potential to expand into Australia and the South Pacific.

A DFS for the project was completed in January 2019, which boasted attractive economics. A mining lease was then granted in August 2020, before the PNG Government granted it Special Economic Zone (SEZ) status in September this year.

The establishment of the SEZ, said Mayur’s Managing Director Paul Mulder, “sets the right conditions for large scale investment to thrive and catalyse down-stream processing in the SEZ that will particularly benefit the people and the manufacturing industry in PNG.”

The downside is that cement production — particularly the production of clinker, a key ingredient in cement — is a whopping contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. As the most widely used man-made material on Earth, cement is the source of roughly 8 per cent of the world’s COoutput, according to London-based thinktank Chatham House. If the industry were a country, it would be the world’s third largest emitter, behind China and the United States.

Re-enter the 2016 study. By pulling CO2 from the atmosphere and converting it to clean, easily storable limestone, Mayur can further bolster its supplies, which are already significant. Not only that, but by contributing to reductions in atmospheric CO2, there exists the potential for the company to offset some of those emissions that come from concrete, clinker and quicklime production. 

There’s some business nouse in this decision too – any government or buyer MRL are looking to partner with certainly look more favourably on their product if it’s carbon footprint is reduced to as little as possible. 

Looking way down the track, there may even be the potential for an additional revenue stream through the sale of carbon offset credits.

Take Tesla for example. The sale of carbon credits alone saw the electric vehicle maker rake in US$518 million (A$716 million) in revenue in the first quarter of this year.

But while the concept of carbon credits is still new, and applies almost exclusively to the EV sector, there are whispers of change in other industries. The fact that Mark Carney, a former governor of the Bank of England, predicts the unified market for carbon offsets could hit US$100 billion by the end of the decade — up from about US$300 million in 2018 — is in itself illustrative of that change.

And MRL aren’t alone in this space. Fortescue Metals (FMG) has entered into an agreement with PNG to develop some Hydro Power resources. 

It’s worth noting here that all this is based entirely on speculation. At no point has Mayur suggested it has plans to get into the carbon offset business, or even take up the production of limestone through CO2 injection. 

What this does mean, however, is that for those prepared to push the bounds of innovation — like those at Mayur, particularly given their recent board appointments and their recognition of “behind the scenes” developments — the rewards can be considerable.

MRL shares were trading in the grey at 25.5 cents at 3:10 pm AEST

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