Coal Miners Turn Methane Into Power

Climate advocates say a model in Australia should be replicated across the industry

- James Fernyhough, with Aaron Clark

Anglo American Plc’s Moranbah North coal mine is among the biggest polluters in Australia. It’s also being hailed as a potential climate role model for the fossil fuel sector. That’s because London-based Anglo is curbing some of the most problematic emissions from this mine and two others by capturing methane—a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide—from their underground coal seams through a series of shafts and networks of pipes. It’s supplying that fuel to nearby homes and businesses and using it to produce electricity for the grid.

This is a rare example of a coal miner successfully deploying technology that advocates of faster climate action insist is critical to help tackle a major source of planetary warming. Australia, which dominates the supply of steelmaking coal, is among the more than 100 nations that have signed a pact pledging to cut global methane emissions to at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030. To accomplish that, the country will have to find a way to reduce the release of coal mine methane, which accounts for a rising proportion of the nation’s total methane emissions, currently almost a third.

Anglo estimates it’s capturing just over 42% of the methane that would otherwise leak out of its mines. “If you believe there’s a long-term future in steelmaking coal—and we do—we then fundamentally believe we have to be a responsible operator of that asset,” says Daniel van der Westhuizen, chief executive officer of Anglo’s Australian operations.