Breakthrough Green Technology Set to Revolutionize Nickel Pollution Cleanup

MANHATTAN, N.Y. - Oct. 23, 2025 - PRLog -- Olivine, a green magnesium-iron silicate mineral, holds extraordinary potential to address several of the planet's most urgent environmental challenges. Its natural ability to capture and permanently store carbon dioxide, neutralize toxic heavy metals, and restore nutrient balance in soils and oceans makes it one of nature's most powerful tools for planetary healing. By releasing essential minerals such as magnesium, iron, and silicon through natural weathering, olivine enriches ecosystems, enhances crop health, and strengthens biodiversity. It counteracts acidification in soils and oceans, helping restore balance and resilience to fragile environments. Albanian Minerals,  holds the world's largest high-quality olivine reserves, is pioneering sustainable technologies that harness olivine's transformative power to drive a global green revolution.

Among the many pollutants olivine can address, nickel poses a particularly serious and often overlooked threat. Nickel is vital for stainless steel, batteries, and clean energy technologies, but its mining, processing, and disposal release dangerous quantities of nickel ions (Ni²⁺) into the environment. These ions are highly mobile in water and soil, toxic to plants and aquatic life, and harmful to human health, having been classified as carcinogenic. Acidic conditions from mining waste exacerbate nickel's mobility and toxicity, spreading contamination across vast areas of land and waterways worldwide.

Traditional methods of nickel removal are often costly, chemically intensive, and temporary. Olivine offers a natural, affordable, and scalable alternative. When olivine reacts with acidic water, it dissolves and neutralizes acidity, releasing magnesium, iron, and silicic acid while raising pH levels. This pH increase reduces nickel solubility, preventing it from moving freely through the environment. The iron released from olivine oxidizes to form iron hydroxide, a solid compound with a large surface area that effectively adsorbs nickel ions. Over time, nickel becomes locked into stable minerals such as nickel hydroxide and nickel silicate, immobilizing it permanently.

Olivine can be used to treat contaminated mine drainage, industrial wastewater, and polluted soils. It stabilizes toxic metals, restores fertility, and supports the growth of plants and beneficial microbes. Its use in agriculture improves soil health, reduces metal uptake by crops, and enhances productivity.

Albanian Minerals leads global efforts to deploy olivine-based environmental restoration on a large scale. Working with scientists, industries, and governments, the company envisions a future where this natural green mineral becomes central to cleaning polluted ecosystems and restoring planetary balance. Olivine represents both a scientific breakthrough and a philosophical shift, working with Earth's own processes rather than against them.

As Sahit Muja, Founder and CEO of Albanian Minerals, expresses, olivine is "the ancient green gem born from Earth's fiery heart," a symbol of renewal and resilience. By embracing this mineral's natural wisdom, humanity can transform pollution into regeneration, turning the challenges of the modern age into opportunities for harmony between people and planet.
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