Appin Coal Mine Flaring Project

The Appin Coal Mine Flaring Project is an industrial fugitive emissions project located at the Appin Colliery, approximately 35 kilometers northwest of Wollongong in the Illawarra region of New South Wales. Registered in July 2015, the project is operated by Endeavour Coal Pty Limited, a subsidiary of South32. The project operates within the boundaries of the active underground metallurgical coal mine, situated in a region characterized by a mix of heavy industrial mining, rural grazing, and peri-urban land use.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Coal Mine Waste Gas) Methodology Determination 2015. This methodology is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capturing methane, a potent greenhouse gas released during coal extraction, that would otherwise be vented directly into the atmosphere. The standard requirement for such projects involves the installation of flaring devices or electricity generation systems to convert methane ($CH_4$) into carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) through combustion. Since $CO_2$ has a significantly lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) than methane, this process generates abatement credits.

Geographically, the Appin area experiences a high rainfall climate, with annual precipitation averaging around 800mm. The local terrain sits atop the Wianamatta Shale formation, typically resulting in clay-loam soils that support the surrounding eucalypt forests and pastureland. These environmental conditions are distinct from the arid regions often associated with Australian open-cut mining, as the Appin operation is a deep underground mine located in the lush Southern Highlands fringe.

This specific project was established as an "expansion flaring" initiative. While the Appin mine already hosts a substantial waste coal mine gas power station (operated by EDL) that generates electricity from drained gas, this project installed additional flaring infrastructure to destroy excess methane that exceeds the power station's capacity or cannot be utilized. This ensures that even during periods of high gas drainage or power station maintenance, the methane is destroyed rather than vented.