Drake Coal Mine

This article is part of the Global Coal Mine Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

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Drake Coal Mine is an operating coal mine in Collinsville, Queensland, Australia.

Location

Table 1: Project-level location details

Mine Name	Location	Coordinates (WGS 84)
Drake Coal Mine	Collinsville, Queensland, Australia	-20.705189, 147.812727 (exact)

The map below shows the exact location of the coal mine:

Project Details

Table 2: Project status

Status	Status Detail	Opening Year	Closing Year
Operating	–	2014	2044 (planned)

Table 3: Operation details

Note: The asterisk (*) signifies that the value is a GEM estimated figure.

Capacity (Mtpa)	Production (Mtpa)	Year of Production	Mine Type	Mining Method	Mine Size (km2)	Mine Depth (m)	Workforce Size
10	4.925	2025	Surface	Open Pit	92.15	60.0*	390.0

Table 4: Coal resources and destination

Total Reserves (Mt)	Year of Total Reserves Recorded	Total Resources (Mt)	Coalfield	Coal Type	Coal Grade	Primary Consumer/ Destination
200.0	–	–	Bowen	Bituminous	Thermal & Met	Terminal (Export)

Table 5: Ownership and parent company

Note: To access more comprehensive data on energy ownership, please visit the Global Energy Ownership Tracker.

Owner	Parent Company	Headquarters
QCoal	QCoal Pty Ltd [100.0%]	Australia

Table 6: Historical production (unit: million tonnes per annum)

ROM or Saleable	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
ROM	5.2	6.29	4.93	4.25	4.73	5.31	4.97	–	4.92

Reported Methane Emissions Data

Global Energy Monitor collates facility-scale methane emissions data reported by government and company sources collected in a systematic fashion. This mine is associated with the following methane emissions reports:

Table 7: Methane emissions

Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes CO2 equivalent)	Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes CH4)	Year of Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions	Reported Coal Mine Methane Emissions (thousand tonnes) Reference	Reference type
5.448	452.175	2024-25	​	national government data

Note: The above sections were automatically generated and are based on data from the Global Coal Mine Tracker May 2026 release.

Ownership Tree

This ownership tree is part of the Global Energy Ownership Tracker, a project of Global Energy Monitor.

Background

The Drake coal mine is an open-cut coal mine located 12 kilometers south of Collinsville in Queensland’s north Bowen Basin. The mine, which is owned by QCoal, opened in 2014. Mining operations will extract approximately 10 million tonnes per year (Mt/y) of run of mine (ROM) coal, which will then be processed to produce 6Mt/y of product coal for export. With around 200 Mt of economically recoverable coal, the anticipated life of the mine is 25 to 30 years.

Drake Coal Mine comprises a part of the QCoal Northern Hub, which also includes the Sonoma mine, Cows coal mine, and Jax coal mine.

Coal from Drake Mine is railed to the Abbot Point Coal Terminal for export.

• Operator: Thiess
• Owner: QCoal
• Location: 17km south of Collinsville, Bowen Basin, Queensland.
• GPS Coordinates: -20.705189, 147.812727 (exact)
• Status: Operating
• Capacity: 6 million tonnes per year
• Production: 4.9 million tonnes
• Total Resource:
• Mineable Reserves: 200 Mt
• Coal type: hard coking and thermal coal
• Mine Size:
• Mine Type: Open cut
• Start Year: 2014
• Source of Financing:

Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources

Global Energy Monitor researchers have identified coal mine boundary/boundaries and potential sources of coal mine methane (CMM) for this mine. These research results can be used to drive CMM attribution and mitigation efforts, particularly when combined with remotely sensed methane plume locations and mine ownership data. Explore the results with the embedded map at the top of this page by clicking on the mine boundary polygon or the CMM placemarkers to reveal more details. A detailed description of this research can be found in Coal Mine Boundaries and Methane Sources. This data is also available as a downloadable companion dataset to the Global Coal Mine Tracker and the Global Methane Emitters Tracker.

Table SMP1: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data

ID	Mine feature category	Mine feature subcategory	Description	Coordinates precision	Data source date
M0035.B1	mine boundary	surface	Drake coal mine boundary	extracted	2025-01-24 00:00:00

Table SMP2: Coal mine boundaries and methane sources data (continued)

Coal mine boundaries and methane sources were last researched for this mine on Oct 16, 2025

ID

Notes

M0035.B1

According to paragraph 3 of the introduction on page 4 of the Annual Compliance Report Drake Coal Mine EPBC 2010/5457 8 November 2023 to 7 November 2024, published 24 January 2025, Drake Coal Mine is wholly contained within Mining Leases 10349, 10350 and 10351, which cover an area of 9,215 Ha (92.15 sq km). Also, the mine is one of four adjoining coal mines managed by QCoal, the others being the Sonoma Coal Mine, the Cows Coal Mine and the Jax Coal Mine (JCM). These four mines are collectively operated and managed as an integrated mining operation by QCoal, and referred to as the QCoal Northern Hub (QNH). Mining lease geometries were extracted from the Queensland Mining Leases dataset (https://web.archive.org/web/2/https://www.data.qld.gov.au/dataset/queensland-mining-and-exploration-tenure-series/resource/f87794b8-7b9a-4732-89bb-56ccb2228d27). The area of the boundary is 92.4 sq km.

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Additional data

To access additional data, including an interactive map of world coal mines, a downloadable dataset, and summary data, please visit the Global Coal Mine Tracker on the Global Energy Monitor website.