Cirus Carbon Project

The Cirus Carbon Project is a soil carbon sequestration project located in the pastoral unincorporated area of South Australia, approximately 40km northwest of the town of Penong and east of Fowlers Bay. Registered in March 2016, the project initially covered 10,140 hectares of grazing land. The region is characterized by a semi-arid climate with an average annual rainfall of approximately 300mm. The landscape typically features calcareous sandy loams and silty sands over calcrete, common to the far west of the Eyre Peninsula.

Operated by Corporate Carbon Solutions with Agriprove as a key participant, the project operates under the Sequestering Carbon in Soils in Grazing Systems methodology. This method requires landholders to implement new management activities, such as altering stocking density, pasture rejuvenation, or regenerative grazing, to increase the amount of organic carbon stored in the soil. These increases are measured through baseline and subsequent soil sampling to generate Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs).

A notable aspect of the Cirus Carbon Project is its scale in terms of contracted abatement. Public records indicate it holds a fixed delivery contract with the Clean Energy Regulator for 7.5 million ACCUs, making it one of the largest single commitments in the soil carbon sector. The project utilizes regenerative landscape management to achieve these targets. In April 2018, a variation was filed to remove certain areas from the project, a common practice to exclude non-compliant or rocky land from the carbon estimation area.