Author: Robert Watson
rocky@rockflat.com.au
Keywords: Glencore, Great Artesian Basin, carbon capture and storage, CO2, fossil fuel, mining, Queensland government, CCS
1st June 2024
A WIN FOR US ALL – EXCEPT GLENCORE
The climate and Australia had a win this week. A proposal by the Glencore mining group to store liquified carbon dioxide (CO2) derived from a planned, but unproven, carbon capture process into subsurface sandstone beneath the Great Artesian Basin was rejected by the Queensland Government.
The risks and impediments associated with Glencore’s Great Artesian Basin proposal were discussed last month in my essay “Glencore and the Great Artesian Basin”, which can be found on the Rockflat website (https://rockflat.com.au/portfolio-items/glencore-and-the-great-artesian-basin-is-it-worth-the-risk/).
Besides the benefits to, and preclusion of potential risks to the environment and livelihoods, the rejection by the Queensland government is significant at a time when there have been considerable concessions and gains by the mining industry, as governments of all shades are torn between the extremely strong mining lobby and funds derived thereof, and the struggle to achieve net zero emissions. Above all, the Queensland government decision is one of the first rejections of a proposal fraught with risk by a major international mining company.