TRL 6–7. CarbFix proven in Iceland. India's Deccan Traps is a world-class geological asset.
Basalt mineralisation — sometimes called mineral trapping or carbon mineralisation — is a CO₂ storage pathway where injected CO₂ reacts with the calcium, magnesium, and iron-rich minerals in basalt rock to form stable carbonate minerals (calcite, dolomite, magnesite). Unlike saline aquifer or depleted reservoir storage, where CO₂ is trapped as a gas or supercritical fluid by geological cap rock, mineralisation converts the CO₂ into solid rock — permanently and irreversibly. The risk of leakage, which is the primary concern of geological CO₂ storage in sedimentary formations, is essentially eliminated.
The CarbFix project at the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant in Iceland provided the definitive proof of concept for basalt CO₂ mineralisation at engineered scale. CO₂ was dissolved in water and injected into Iceland's basalt formations — and monitoring showed that more than 95% of the injected CO₂ had mineralised to solid carbonate within 2 years. This is dramatically faster than the thousands of years predicted by earlier models and establishes basalt mineralisation as the safest and most permanent form of geological CO₂ storage available.
The critical geological requirement for basalt mineralisation is the presence of reactive basalt formations with sufficient porosity and permeability to accept CO₂-laden water injection at commercial rates. India's Deccan Traps — a flood basalt province formed approximately 66 million years ago covering approximately 500,000 km² across Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, and Madhya Pradesh — is one of the world's largest and most reactive basalt formations. NCM is conducting the first systematic assessment of the Deccan Traps as a CO₂ storage resource, working with the Geological Survey of India.
India's Deccan Traps represent a geological accident of extraordinary value for CCUS — a 500,000 km² province of flood basalt, up to 2 km thick in parts, sitting precisely in the geographic heart of India's heaviest industrial emission zones. Maharashtra and Gujarat — home to India's largest cement, chemicals, power, and petrochemical clusters — sit directly above or adjacent to Deccan Traps formations. The potential for co-location of major emission sources with world-class basalt storage is a strategic asset that few other countries possess.
The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has mapped the Deccan Traps extensively for mineral resources, and existing borehole data provides a foundation for CO₂ storage appraisal. However, a systematic CO₂ storage characterisation programme — assessing basalt reactivity, porosity, permeability, and water chemistry at depth — has not yet been conducted. NCM is working with GSI and the Ministry of Earth Sciences to design this characterisation programme, which would establish India's first formal CO₂ storage atlas for basalt formations.
The mineralisation timeline in the Deccan Traps is likely to be similar to CarbFix in Iceland — 1–2 years for substantial mineralisation — given the similar basalt composition and the availability of low-salinity formation water in the shallow Deccan sequences. However, deeper formations under the Deccan plateau (below 800m) may have different mineralogy and water chemistry that requires specific characterisation. NCM's storage appraisal programme is designed to address this uncertainty with targeted pilot injection testing.
Deccan Traps basalt area — one of the world's largest CO₂-reactive basalt provinces
CO₂ mineralisation rate in CarbFix Iceland within 2 years — fastest permanent storage on earth
Maximum Deccan Traps thickness — substantial storage volume potential in Maharashtra and Gujarat
Age of Deccan Traps formation — ancient, tectonically stable, and highly reactive basalt
Each project provides specific technical lessons applied to NCM's Deccan Traps assessment programme.
The world's definitive proof-of-concept for basalt CO₂ mineralisation. 95% mineralisation in 2 years. Iceland's Holocene basalt is chemically similar to the Deccan Traps in key respects. CarbFix's injection methodology, monitoring design, and mineralisation verification protocol are directly applied by NCM in the Deccan Traps assessment.
US DOE-funded programme demonstrating CO₂ mineralisation in Columbia River flood basalts — geologically the most similar large basalt province to the Deccan Traps on earth. NCM is collaborating with BigSky project scientists on comparative Deccan Traps characterisation.
While not basalt, Greensand's North Sea offshore CO₂ storage programme demonstrates the regulatory pathway for new storage type approval — lessons directly applicable to establishing India's regulatory framework for basalt CO₂ mineralisation permits.
NCM's basalt mineralisation programme is structured in three phases. Phase 1 — currently underway — is a desktop characterisation of the Deccan Traps using existing GSI borehole data, geophysical surveys, and geochemical analyses to identify the highest-priority sites for pilot injection testing. This phase produces India's first CO₂ storage atlas for basalt formations, ranking candidate sites by estimated storage capacity, reactivity, and co-location with major emission sources.
Phase 2 will involve a pilot injection programme at 1–2 selected sites — injecting CO₂-dissolved water at small scale (1,000–10,000 tonnes/year) with comprehensive geophysical and geochemical monitoring to measure mineralisation rates, injection performance, and water chemistry evolution. This pilot is designed to produce the safety and performance data required for regulatory approval of larger-scale commercial injection.
Phase 3 is commercial-scale deployment — 100,000+ tonnes/year — integrated with industrial CO₂ sources in Maharashtra and Gujarat. NCM is structuring the commercial model for Phase 3 to generate both India Carbon Market credits and international voluntary carbon market credits, using the permanence of mineralisation storage to command premium prices over gas-phase geological storage credits. The combination of premium carbon credit revenue and the absence of long-term storage liability makes basalt mineralisation potentially the most commercially attractive storage pathway for India.
Whether you are a government body seeking policy advice, an industrial company facing CBAM exposure, or an investor seeking CCUS project opportunities — our team is ready to engage.