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A recent study found methane emissions at Glencore's Hail Creek coal mine in Queensland were significantly higher than the company had reported.

Published by the American Chemical Society's Environmental Studies and Technology Letters, the study was led by the United Nations Environment Program's International Methane Emissions Observatory and measured methane plumes using two different instruments attached to research planes.

Both planes flew over the Hail Creek open-cut mine – located 120km southwest of Mackay in the Bowen Basin – in September 2023, with the results showing methane emissions could be three to eight times higher than Glencore reported in the 2023 financial year.

That year, Glencore reported total emissions from the mine of roughly 530,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent – including methane and other CO2 emissions – to the government's Safeguard Mechanism.

Launched in 2016, the Safeguard Mechanism is the federal government's policy for reducing emissions at Australia's largest industrial facilities. It requires the country's most pollutive assets to cut their emissions in line with certain targets – that is, 43% below 2005 emissions levels by 2030, and net-zero by 2050.

Data collected by the UNEP team suggested methane emissions at Hail Creek were likely between 1.5 million tonnes and 4.2 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year.

University of New South Wales senior research associate and co-author of the study Dr Stephen Harris said the UNEP team's airborne measurements were further evidence that emissions from the mine were not well-captured using state-wide emission factors. 

"The results support phasing out these generic reporting methods in favour of more advanced, mine-specific coal gas content modelling for open-cut coal mines in Australia," Harris said.

The methane problem

Methane, a greenhouse gas, is emitted during the production and transport of coal, natural gas and oil, but is also produced by livestock and other land-use activities, such as the decay of organic waste in landfills.

Though it is a short-lived pollutant, methane is roughly 80 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period, and 28-times more harmful over a 100-year period.

Coal mines account for approximately one-third of overall fossil fuel methane emissions, and governments and industries worldwide are seeking more effective methods to curb the impact of pollutive assets.

Australia signed the Global Methane Pledge in 2022, under which more than 150 countries committed to reduce global methane emissions by at least 30% below 2020 levels by 2030.

Glencore ‘has significant doubts'

The Switzerland-based miner, which acquired a majority stake in the Hail Creek mine in 2018, was quick to rebut the study's findings, saying it had "significant doubts about the credibility" of the paper.

"The UNEP paper uses out-of-date data in combination with extremely limited aerial surveys conducted over a period representing less than 1% of the mine's operating time within a two-year period," Glencore said.

"This limited data was then used to extrapolate an annual emissions inventory for the mine. The use of such a small data sample lacks credibility."

Glencore argued that the study did not acknowledge its transition from a Method 1 measurement approach to Method 2, and that it "does not reflect inherent mining variability".

Method 1 measurements consider an emissions factor multiplied by the tonnage of coal produced directly from a mine over the course of a year.

However, Australia's National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting Scheme introduced amendments in 2024 to replace this with the more mine-specific Method 2.

A spokesperson told Australia's 88���ֳ� that the shift in reporting methods could not have been accounted for, since the study was accepted on March 7 2025 – prior to Glencore's announcement of its transition to Method 2 on March 18.

"Notably, Glencore was engaged during the course of this study and invited to share relevant data – which could have included the above updates to its reporting methods – but the company declined," they added.

"Regarding mining variability, the paper clearly states this was a point-in-time measurement. We encourage Glencore to publicly share data on the variability of its Method 2 emission rates so studies such as this can better account for them."

Glencore also warned that the study failed to assess upwind methane emissions, and simplistically attributed methane anomalies in the vicinity of Hail Creek to the mine, "without any data to support whether these emissions are related to the mine or from other sources".

Again, the UNEP stood firm, arguing the potential for upwind emissions was addressed by the remote sensing aircraft, and that the findings – available in the study's data repository – showed no detectable upwind methane sources. 

"Regarding attribution of anomalies, no major sources could be identified in remote sensing data outside of the mining pit," the UNEP spokesperson said.

A recurring theme

It is not the first time Glencore has come under fire for underreporting methane emissions from its Australian coal mines.

According to a report published in April 2022 by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility, the miner was – at the time – likely to have been understating its operational emissions by between 11% and 24% on an annual basis.

"Recent peer-reviewed research based on satellite observations identified Glencore's Hail Creek and Oaky North coal mines as ‘super-emitters'," the report said.

"Hail Creek was estimated to emit 20% of Australia's methane emissions from coal mining, while accounting for just 1% of national coal production."

That information was collected in November 2021 by scientists from the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research. Glencore said in response that it did not believe the paper could be relied upon to estimate the company's emissions.

"The SRON paper provided limited information or detail on the emissions estimation methodology they have applied," the miner said.

"Atmospheric contaminants such as dust, water vapour or smoke have the potential to impact the accuracy and validity of the TROPOMI instrument's measurements.

"The paper also failed to acknowledge that there was no pre-drainage activities or underground mining at the Hail Creek open cut operation at the time of the study."

What now?

For the UNEP, the question is not so much about the true extent of methane emissions at Glencore's Hail Creek mine, but rather the steps the company – and the broader coal and steel industries – take to curb them.

"Ultimately, the most significant question remains: what specific actions is Glencore taking to reduce methane emissions from the Hail Creek mine?" the UNEP spokesperson said.

The Bowen Basin is home to almost all of Australia's metallurgical coal operations, and the researchers behind the UNEP study argued the sector was an often-overlooked opportunity to make not only quick but affordable progress in fighting climate change.

According to the UNEP's International Methane Emissions Observatory, methane released from metallurgical coal mining contributed to roughly a quarter of steel's climate impact. However, more effective management of methane emissions could be achieved at just 1% of the cost of steel production.

IMEO head Manfredi Caltagirone said there was so much potential for the steel supply chain to step up, rein in its methane emissions, and have a real impact on climate in the coming years.

"We need better, verified data like those in this study to seize this mitigation opportunity," Caltagirone said.