Ironbark WCMG Electricity Generation Facility

Ironbark WCMG Electricity Generation Facility is an industrial fugitives project located at the Ironbark coal mine, approximately 15km west of Nebo in Central Queensland's Bowen Basin. It was registered in May 2023 and operates within an active underground metallurgical coal mining lease.

Coal mine waste gas projects earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by safely capturing and destroying highly potent fugitive methane emissions from underground coal mines. This specific displacement electricity production project captures waste gas and combusts the methane component in generators to produce power, earning credits both for destroying methane and for offsetting the use of more carbon-intensive grid electricity.

The Nebo area in the Bowen Basin is primarily known for extensive coal mining operations and cattle grazing. The region experiences a semi-arid to sub-tropical climate with moderate, summer-dominant rainfall averaging roughly 600mm annually. Local soil profiles vary widely but typically include grey and brown cracking clays in the alluvial plains, and gravelly, sandy loams over sodic clays on the undulating terrain and hilly rises.

Developed as a strategic partnership between metallurgical coal miner Fitzroy and carbon abatement specialist Carbon Logica, the Ironbark facility commissioned its initial 5MW power plant in late 2024. The project plans to eventually expand its generation capacity to 20MW, at which point it could produce enough electricity to power roughly 35,000 households each year while abating over 90,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. Notably, the facility was celebrated as the first operational emissions abatement project in the metallurgical coal industry following the introduction of Australia's Safeguard Mechanism Reforms.