Australia has reached an inflection point as it works towards contributing to global decarbonisation. A critical supplier of transition materials (the demand for which is set to double by 2030), the global mining leader is also one of the world’s biggest fossil fuel exporters, responsible for around 4.5% of global fossil-CO₂ emissions.
Calls for more aggressive decarbonisation targets are increasing, and resource-heavy economies such as Australia are under pressure to balance productivity with cleaner operations. While the task is formidable, the nation’s abundant renewable resources and expanding innovation ecosystem suggest that cleaner mining could become one of its greatest industrial opportunities.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
From renewable integration to microgrids and electrified fleets, innovators are working to scale up the technologies that could define the next era of extraction. Progress remains uneven, slowed by high costs, legacy systems and the complexity of operating across vast, varied terrains – but the potential gains are significant.
Australia’s mining decarbonisation pathways
In September, Australia’s Federal Government announced its 2035 emissions reduction target of 62–70% below 2005 levels, building on the previous target of a 43% cut by 2030.
The response was mixed. The Business Council Australia called the target ambitious, noting that achieving it requires “major reform” and investment, while Fortescue CEO Andrew Forrest described it as “commendable”.
Environmental groups, however, argued that the target falls short, with Greens party Deputy Leader Larissa Waters labelling it an “utter failure” and a “betrayal of people and the planet”.
US Tariffs are shifting - will you react or anticipate?
Don’t let policy changes catch you off guard. Stay proactive with real-time data and expert analysis.
By GlobalDataThe debate reflects what Dane Noble, Australia-New Zealand industrial decarbonisation lead at AECOM, describes as a “divided” landscape.
“There are some examples of bold action and Paris-aligned commitments but also some examples of companies deferring capital investment in direct abatement and a lack of meaningful progress on scope 1 emissions,” he tells Mining Technology.
He adds that while much of the decarbonisation technology required remains in the pilot phase, three main pathways to emission reduction in mining have singled themselves out.
These are reducing fuel combustion emissions through fuel switching and electrification; reducing fugitive emissions from coal mining and gas processing; and scaling carbon management technologies including carbon capture and storage.
However, even with these identified viable pathways, investment and technological maturity stand in the way of full-scale commercialisation.
“Positive trends include decarbonised purchased electricity via power purchase agreements (PPAs), which are continuing to see strong uptake, with Rio Tinto the fifth-largest corporate buyer globally of renewable energy and storage PPAs in 2024,” Noble says. “Negative trends are largely to do with fleet electrification technology maturity and availability in the mining sector translating to deferral of capital beyond 2030.”
Reducing and storing carbon
According to a 2024 poll conducted by GlobalData, Mining Technology’s parent company, miners see on-site renewables as the most effective way to cut emissions by 2030. Indeed, with the nation’s abundant solar and wind opportunities, it is a method particularly suited to mining transformation.
One such example is Gold Fields’ St Ives project near Kalgoorlie in Western Australia (WA). Approved in March last year, the project will deploy 42MW of wind and 35MW of solar capacity, expected to cover 73% of the mine’s electricity needs and reduce carbon emissions by 50%.
While not yet operational, the project is seen as something of a blueprint for making mines renewably powered.
Meanwhile, Rio Tinto has secured 2.2GW of renewable energy in Queensland and BHP is rolling out microgrids across its WA sites.
Yet, logistical and financial barriers persist, particularly for remote operations.
Carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) has also emerged as a potentially significant solution. While not a silver bullet, a recent study from AECOM highlighted CCUS as an essential piece of the decarbonisation puzzle – one that Australia has yet to fully capitalise on.
“The key enablers to achieving this tech tie back to infrastructure,” Noble says. “This includes de-bottlenecking the supply chain at the interfaces between public and private infrastructure, ensuring access to clean and affordable energy supply, and ensuring access to port, road and rail infrastructure for our exports.”
As with any decarbonisation technology, such efforts will require consistent government and industry backing – and the time to mature – to reach their full potential.
Gareth Kennedy, research director of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) Sustainable Mining Technologies programme, says that decarbonisation technologies in general face implementation challenges due to the sheer scale of the industry.
“Broadly speaking, we have made strong progress in awareness and early adoption in decarbonisation technology in recent years, but we are still a long way from achieving net zero,” he explains. “The technologies exist, but scaling and implementation, especially safely and economically, requires major investment.”
The push to electrify Australian mining
Such problems are also evident in the other decarbonisation avenues, including the electrification a mine transport.
Truck haulage is currently responsible for up to 50% of emissions in open pits, while the Australian Renewable Energy Agency found that Australian iron ore mining produces roughly five million tonnes of CO₂ each year due to fleet diesel consumption.
Shifting to a cleaner model can lead to lower greenhouse gas emissions, reduced ventilation requirements underground and lower maintenance costs – yet adoption remains limited.
According to David Kurtz, director of research & analysis for construction, mining and energy at GlobalData, only 1% of trucks and 3% of underground loaders are currently battery-electric. He attributes the slow uptake to high upfront costs, infrastructure requirements and the challenge of delivering reliable power in remote locations.
“Very few mines are focused on fully electrifying their fleets,” he says. “It is expected that share will rise much more into the next decade once miners address sunken assets, battery limitations and the massive surge in power demand that will occur due to full electrification.”
To offset costs, retrofits of diesel machines are gaining traction, alongside mobile charging units and quick-change battery systems that minimise downtime; however, challenges differ widely across operations.
“Even within mining, there are very different challenges for different applications – open-cut versus underground, coal versus metalliferous mines and so on,” Kennedy says. “Open-cut sites require huge haulage trucks, and converting these to electric introduces its own problems around charging infrastructure, regulation and safety. On the other hand, bringing high-capacity batteries into underground mining, sometimes an explosive atmosphere, is not straightforward and not the same as with open-cut sites.”
Beyond carbon
While decarbonisation dominates headlines, two of the most mature technologies CSIRO is developing, Kennedy says, are not related to carbon but other significant environmental burdens: methane and waste water.
“The air you exhaust out of a coal mine as ventilation air methane accounts for around 15% of fugitive methane emissions in Australia as a whole,” he says. “We are currently developing catalytic systems that can destroy methane at very low concentrations.”
“So far, this has been successfully piloted at a mine site at small scale, and we are planning to scale this up to help reduce Australia’s fugitive methane emissions.”
Another CSIRO project focuses on waste water treatment, using membrane and osmosis-based systems to convert acidic or metal-laden water into reusable sources. Some approaches even harness renewable energy to recycle water on-site in remote areas.
“We have shown it is possible to turn contaminated mine water into reusable water, sometimes clean enough to return to ecosystems, or even for human use if treated further,” Kennedy says.
Interest in the project extends beyond miners to communities and councils, including indigenous communities where water access remains a challenge.
However, Ramesh Thiruvenkatachari, lead researcher in the water treatment initiative, said such work is “infrastructure intensive”, requiring significant chemical and energy inputs. As with other clean energy technologies, cost and scalability remain the final hurdles to widespread adoption.
Emission reduction projects across Australia show transformation is happening but unevenly, with the mining industry needing consistent investment, technological development and refined policy before it can expect industry-wide change.
“Regarding policy, it is critical that the balance between carrots and sticks is carefully struck,” says Noble. “Too much carrot and we risk subsidising projects and industries that are otherwise uneconomic and unviable for the long term. Too much stick and we risk making those facilities uncompetitive both domestically and globally, as our facilities compete with imports not subject to the same regulations.”
The right balance, he adds, should lead with incentives for new, low-emission technologies, supported through government programmes, as well as incentives under the Future Made in Australia agenda.
“There are many challenges, particularly around technological maturity and financial risk, but with the right policy landscape and certainty, as well as rewarding early adopters, these can and must be overcome,” he adds.
Still, the economics are starting to shift. Renewable power is cheaper and more reliable, electric vehicles are becoming more commonplace and the business case for low-carbon mining is strengthening as global buyers demand cleaner supply chains.
With consistent investment and technological development, there is significant potential for the nation to turn its clean energy potential into a reality, and the next decade will test whether Australia can align technological innovation with coherent policy and capital investment.
“Overall, I would say the will to decarbonise is definitely there for the Australian mining industry, and the technologies are emerging – but it is going to take time, coordinated policy and large-scale collaboration,” Kennedy concludes.
