Most people hear "carbon removal" and think of machines pulling CO₂ from the sky. Paul Needham thinks about rocks. Specifically, the millions of tonnes of magnesium-rich mine tailings sitting in Western Australia right now, quietly reacting with the atmosphere, and doing it far too slowly.

Arca's technology accelerates that natural process. Carbon mineralisation transforms atmospheric CO₂ into stable carbonate rock, permanently locked away for over 10,000 years. No injection wells. No ongoing maintenance. Just chemistry, sped up. Born from twenty years of research by Professor Greg Dipple at the University of British Columbia, Arca's proprietary technology takes the natural capture rate of ultramafic mine tailings and multiplies it three to four times over.

The world needs 10 to 20 times more critical metals for the clean energy transition. But mining them is carbon intensive. Arca resolves that paradox: a pathway to carbon-negative mining.

Needham's path to mining was anything but conventional. A Cambridge-trained economist and serial entrepreneur with three company exits, he previously co-founded Simpa Networks, Asia's largest rural rooftop solar leasing company, installing clean power on 50,000 rooftops and delivering electricity to a quarter of a million people across rural India. He brought to Arca something the carbon removal sector often lacks: the commercial instinct to build climate science into a scalable business.

That instinct has attracted serious partners. Microsoft has signed a long-term agreement for the removal of nearly 300,000 tonnes of CO₂ over the next decade. Shopify and Frontier Climate have pre-purchased credits. And the XPRIZE Foundation, from over 1,300 global applicants, awarded Arca a US$1 million Milestone Award for Carbon Removal before naming it a Top 20 finalist in the US$100 million competition funded by the Musk Foundation.

What makes Needham's GRX26 appearance particularly compelling is the Australian chapter. Last year, Arca completed a successful demonstration project of its technology in partnership with BHP and their Mount Keith Nickel West Mine, a world-first project to capture atmospheric CO₂ and transform it into rock at an active mine site. Western Australia's geology creates ideal conditions for carbon mineralisation at scale, and Arca is currently in discussion with several WA mining companies. In January 2026, Arca locked in a 10-year agreement with Giga Metals in Canada to explore the potential of incorporating carbon removal into Giga's Turnagain mine design.

At GRX26, Needham joins a fireside chat alongside Roman Teslyuk of Earth AI and Chad Burrows of Hancock Iron Ore — companies from different continents, each targeting a different segment of the value chain. Earth AI uses machine learning to discover deposits majors dismissed. And Arca transforms the waste into permanent carbon storage.

For an audience sitting on millions of tonnes of tailings, Needham's question is disarmingly simple: what if your biggest environmental liability is actually your most valuable climate asset?