A foray into false positive results in mineral dissolution and precipitation studies

•Pointing out the importance that accessory phases may have to the overall mineral dissolution.•Illustrating that reported grain size fractions may not be representative of the dissolving sample.•Promoting grain size distribution analysis as diagnostic tool to complement BET surface area measurements.•Showcasing artefacts from reactor material corrosion.•Discussing the representativeness and reliability of data from high P/T experiments related to mineral sequestration.

This study presents and discusses several case studies of false positive results in mineral/rock dissolution and precipitation studies and the lessons that can be learned from them.