Sustainability

We make underground drilling safer, faster, and more precise — reducing fugitive methane emissions while improving operational compliance.

Our role in gas drainage

Underground coal mines in Australia are legally required to drain methane from the seam before longwall panels are mined.

That's a mining-safety obligation, not a voluntary environmental initiative, and the completeness of that drainage depends on how accurately the holes are drilled. Gas left behind by a deviated hole is released during mining and counted as a fugitive emission under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme.

MACROMEC's role in that chain is specific: faster, more reliable downhole data means more accurate holes, which means more complete drainage.

The same IECEx Zone 0 technology also operates in Japanese construction tunnelling and expanding Canadian potash operations - deployments with no coal application at all.

Areas of Environmental Relevance

Methane Capture Efficiency

Gas drainage drilling is a mandatory safety requirement in underground coal. MACROMEC improves drilling accuracy, which supports more complete methane capture before and during longwall mining operations. Methane captured is methane that is not vented to atmosphere.

Technology Diversification

The same IECEx-certified technology that supports gas drainage in underground coal now operates in Japanese construction tunnelling and is expanding into potash mining. The product architecture is not coal-dependent — it is driven by the need for intrinsic safety in underground environments.

See the full configuration range on the MACROMEC page →

Reduced Equipment Waste

Legacy MECCA cable assemblies are single-use consumables. MACROMEC is multi-use. Replacing single-use cable assemblies with reusable precision components reduces the volume of consumable waste generated per metre drilled in underground coal operations.

How Better Drilling Reduces
Fugitive Emissions

The connection between drilling accuracy and atmospheric methane is direct and traceable:

1. Underground coal seams contain methane absorbed under geological pressure - typically 5m³ to 25m³ per tonne of coal in Australian gassy seams.

2. Australian mining law requires pre-drainage of methane before longwall panels are mined. Operators must drill directional holes into the seam to extract gas in advance.

3. The accuracy of those holes determines how effectively the seam is drained. Holes that deviate from their target trajectory leave undrained zones resulting in methane that will be released during mining.

4. MACROMEC transmits real-time survey data at 10 Mbps - five times faster than legacy MECCA systems. This allows drillers to make more frequent, more accurate corrections during each drilling run.

5. More accurate holes mean more complete methane capture. More complete capture means less methane vented to atmosphere during longwall extraction.

6. Methane is approximately 80 times more potent than CO₂ over a 20-year horizon. Every additional cubic metre captured rather than vented has a measurable positive impact on fugitive emissions from
that operation. This is not a theoretical pathway. It reflects the direct mechanical relationship between drilling accuracy, drainage completeness, and methane emissions in underground longwall coal mining.

“Gas drainage is a mandatory safety requirement — every underground coal operation has to do it. MACROMEC improves the efficiency and accuracy of that drilling, which supports more complete methane capture. Better gas capture means less methane vented to atmosphere. Methane is roughly 80 times more potent than CO₂ over 20 years, so improving drainage efficiency has a measurable positive impact on the methane emissions profile of an underground operation.”

Manufacturing & supply chain

MACROMEC and MICROMEC are designed and manufactured in Australia, under IECEx certification and ISO 9001-aligned quality systems. Full manufacturing, design, and compliance detail is on our products page.

View MACROMEC View MICROMEC

Frequently asked questions

Methane liberated from underground coal operations - from both ventilation air and degasification systems - is classified as a fugitive emission. Australian mines are required to report these emissions annually under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) scheme. Methane's global warming potential over a 20-year horizon is approximately 80 times that of carbon dioxide. Improving gas drainage efficiency directly reduces the volume of methane attributed to a mine's fugitive emissions profile.

No. While underground coal is currently the primary market for MACROMEC, the technology operates wherever safe. Accurate directional drilling is required in Zone 0 environments - including Japanese construction tunnelling. The product is certification-dependent and application dependent, not coal-dependent.