March 31, 2023
Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (President & CEO: Katsuhiko Kato; hereinafter “Mizuho Bank”), is today announcing a USD 5,000,000 investment in MCi Carbon Pty Ltd (co-founder & CEO Marcus Dawe; headquartered in Canberra, Australia; hereinafter “MCi”), a clean technology company engaged in decarbonising global industries by carbon dioxide capture and utilisation (CCU) to help achieve a circular economy.
Mizuho Bank has begun operating a ‘Transition Investment Facility’ by committing equity investments towards seed or early-stage corporations to support the challenges Mizuho clients have in funding sustainability initiatives. Sharing both opportunity and risk through such investments, Mizuho Bank aims to co-create social value and contribute to the sustainability of the environment and society.
“With an investment from Mizuho Bank, it is evident that Japan’s banks and industries are future proofing their economies and securing strategic advantages for their partnerships and exports for the new circular carbon economy. Japan has joined MCi on the race to net zero, and this is a call to other forward thinkers.”
MCi Carbon co-founder and CEO Marcus Dawe
MCi Carbon uses a chemical engineering process called mineral carbonation to create valuable inputs into building materials and other products using captured industrial emissions. Diverting carbon dioxide (CO2) from entering the atmosphere, MCi technology reacts CO2 from steel,cement, fertilisers, and mining facilities with mineral by-products of industrial processes, such as steel slag and mine tailings. MCi can create carbon neutral and negative emissions calcium and magnesium carbonates, amorphous silicas, and other inputs for a range of applications in the circular carbon economy.
The company has grown significantly in recent years, following the award of an AUD $14.6m Australian Federal government grant to build one of the world’s first mineral carbonation demonstration plants at Orica's Kooragang Island manufacturing site, using mineral carbonation to prevent emissions from entering the atmosphere. In February 2023, MCi announced a multi-million dollar investment from RHI Magnesita (LON:RHIM), the world’s leader in refractories products, and signed up the Austrian company as its first global commercial customer.
Mizuho Bank recognises that development and social implementation of CCU technology is necessary to achieve carbon neutrality in hard-to-abate sectors and is therefore supportive of the CCU industry. Through the current investment and further support to develop MCi’s commercial pathway in Japan, Mizuho Bank aims to contribute to the decarbonisation of hard-to-abate sectors as well as that of manufacturers which use materials made through the CCU process.
Mizuho Bank is committed to strengthening its sustainability-related efforts, including those related to responding to climate change and transitioning to a decarbonised society, to realise a sustainable society. Leveraging its knowledge and experience as a comprehensive financial services group, Mizuho is committed to contributing to its clients’ desires to improve corporate value and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) via their financing and consulting functions, and to actively engage in the creation and development of diverse and innovative solutions.
For more information
Todd McHenry, Head of Communications | MCi Carbon
Email: comms@mineralcarbonation.com
Phone: +61 422488 512
About MCi Carbon
MCi Carbon (MCi) is a world-leading and award-winning Australian clean technology company transforming carbon dioxide (CO2) into building products and materials for the circular carbon economy. Based in Canberra, MCi Carbon has a technical headquarters in Newcastle, a global reference pilot plant at the Newcastle Institute of Energy and Resources (NIER). Founded in 2013, MCi’s proprietary mineral carbonation technology is a low-cost, low-pressure, low-energy chemical engineering process to transform CO2 emissions from industrial sources into solid materials for use in a range of products.
MCi has received local and international recognition for its R&D, recently awarded the Circular Transition Award at the 34th National Banksia Sustainability Awards and the NSW Clean Technology Award. In 2021, MCi won first prize at the Clean Energy Start-up Pitch Battle at COP26 in Glasgow. Other global accolades include the 2018 Resource Innovator of the Year Award at the New Materials Summit in Berlin and being featured at the World Economic Forum Pioneers of Change Summit, building momentum as a global brand and a leader in carbon capture and utilisation (CCU).
Recently featured in Bloomberg, Forbes, and the Australian Financial Review, MCi CEO Marcus Dawe and COO Sophia Hamblin Wang were named in the Top 100 Australian Green Power Players, published in The Australian.
For more information, please visit mcicarbon.com
About Mizuho Bank
Mizuho Bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mizuho Financial Group, Inc., one of the largest, full-service financial institutions in the world, with approximately 60,000 employees in 35 countries/regions outside of Japan, nearly 150 years of banking experience, and assets of almost USD 2 trillion. Mizuho Bank has one of the largest customer bases in Japan, and a global network of financial and business centres. At Mizuho, we will draw on our expertise as a financial services group to proactively provide financing support, including sustainable finance and environmental finance, as well as advice and solutions to strengthen and shift businesses towards decarbonisation.
For more information, please visit: mizuhogroup.com