Bloodwood Creek remediation project

Carbon Energy undertook two underground coal gasification (UCG) trials at the Bloodwood Creek site between 2008 and 2012 and ceased operations in 2012.

• View a glossary of mining terms used on this page.

The company was placed in liquidation in December 2018 and the mining leases for the site were disclaimed by the company’s liquidators in March 2019. The site is now considered an ‘abandoned mine’ under the Mineral Resources Act 1989. The rehabilitation liability for the site exceeds the financial assurance held by the state.

We are working with the landholder to manage the site, which will include developing a model of how groundwater behaves in the area and developing a site management plan to guide ongoing contaminated land investigations.

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Key risks

Health and safety risks associated with abandoned plant and equipment.

Environmental risks primarily associated with the migration of contaminants to groundwater and surrounding geological formations from:

• the underground cavities, bores and wells and gas gathering infrastructure installed during the trial (under investigation)
• remnant operating plant and other infrastructure.

Completed works

• Asset valuation in October 2019
• Preliminary environmental investigations and monitoring program for 2019-20 including:
  • groundwater sampling in December 2019, May 2020, July 2020 and September 2020
  • preliminary conceptual site model in June 2020
  • methane gas monitoring in January 2021
• Monitoring well condition report in April 2020
• Demolition and removal of redundant plan and infrastructure in July 2021

Planned works

• Upgrade of the remote monitoring network
• Maintenance and decommissioning of wells