North Goonyella Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station (Revoked)

North Goonyella Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station (Revoked) was an industrial fugitive emissions project located at the North Goonyella coal mine, approximately 65km north of Moranbah and 160km west of Mackay in Queensland’s Bowen Basin. Registered in October 2016, the project operated within a region heavily characterized by open-cut and underground coal mining as well as grazing. The surrounding environment typically experiences a semi-arid, sub-tropical climate with summer-dominant rainfall and features heavy cracking clay soils common to the Brigalow Belt bioregion.

The project employed the Coal Mine Waste Gas methodology, which is designed to capture methane, a potent greenhouse gas released during coal extraction, that would otherwise be vented into the atmosphere. The project activity involved installing electricity production devices to combust this captured methane, thereby converting it into less harmful carbon dioxide while generating electricity to displace fossil-fuel-heavy grid power.

Notably, the project was revoked in October 2022 under section 30 of the CFI Rule, which typically indicates a voluntary revocation by the proponent. This timeline aligns with significant operational disruptions at the host mine; the North Goonyella mine suffered a major spontaneous combustion fire in late 2018, forcing an evacuation and long-term closure of the site. The resulting cessation of mining operations likely disrupted the gas supply necessary for the power station, leading the proponent, EDL CSM (Qld) Pty Ltd, to terminate the carbon project.