Super-polluters

While methane is released from a number of different sources, one of the biggest is coal mining. Coal mines are to blame for 23% of Australia’s total methane emissions, a close second to agriculture. Some coal mines are more methane intensive than others - these are methane super-polluters. 

Satellite data shows Glencore’s Hail Creek open cut coal mine is one of the worst methane super-polluters in Australia. The methane it releases makes up 20% of Australia’s total methane pollution from coal mining, while accounting for just 1% of national coal production. Experts estimate that Hail Creek’s methane emissions were about 35 times higher than Glencore reported. This huge quantity of methane means that this one mine released over 15% more methane than was officially reported as coming from all open cut mines in Queensland, Australia’s largest coal producing state and biggest source of coal mine methane.

In 2024, Australian Conservation Foundation investigators analysed satellite data and found that Glencore’s Hail Creek mine released more methane pollution in 16 days than the company reported was emitted over an entire year.

Cutting methane from Australia’s super-polluter coal mines is the fastest way to achieve climate targets and to protect communities from worsening floods, fires and heatwaves.

Glencore’s Oaky North coal mine is also a methane super-polluter. BHP-Mitsubishi and Anglo America own other mines in Queensland’s Bowen Basin that also pollute hundreds of thousands of tonnes of methane every year.

*Figures with a star group mines that are closely located. Source: Sadavarte et al (2021). 

Without using satellite data, Global Energy Think Tank, Ember, uses company reporting and methane intensity in coal seams to estimate that a handful of coal mines pollute huge amounts of methane across Queensland and New South Wales.