The green light for Black Mountain Energy comes just months after Federal experts said its environmental risk assessment was "limited and disjointed" and reached "largely unsupported" conclusions.
If the US miner is found to have mined too close to a large jarrah tree, it would trigger an automatic cancellation of its right to mine much of its lease.
WA environmental watchdog backs Kimberley fracking
The green light for Black Mountain Energy comes just months after Federal experts said its environmental risk assessment was "limited and disjointed" and reached "largely unsupported" conclusions.
The WA Environmental Protection Authority has backed Black Mountain Energy's plans to drill for gas in the Kimberley using the controversial hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, technique.
The US-owned company that had less than $5 million in the bank in mid-2025 plans to drill up to 20 wells 16km from the Fitzroy River in search of commercial quantities of gas, up to 4000m below ground.
The vote does not bind the parliamentary party, but is politically awkward for Environment Minister Matthew Swinbourn, who will make the final decision for the state after an appeals process likely to attract considerable public input.
Black Mountain's proposed development (circled). Image DCCEEW EPBC Public Portal
The drilling campaign, green-lit by the EPA on Tuesday, will allow BME to better understand the gas resources in its Canning Basin permit. If successful, hundreds more wells, requiring further approval, could supply large quantities of gas. Black Mountain Energy (BME) could export the gas through Woodside's underutilised North West Shelf gas export plant, as in 2023 the WA Labor government exempted the Canning Basin from its ban on the export of onshore gas. The plan only works if there is enough gas and long-term demand certainty to justify building a 1000 km pipeline from the Kimberley to the Pilbara.
Federal experts doubt Black Mountain's environmental work
A report published in December by independent scientists advising the Federal Government, which also needs to approve what BME calls Project Valhalla, damned the company's environmental risk assessment.
Mount Hardman Creek runs through the project area into the Fitzroy River. Map: Environs Kimberley
The Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Unconventional Gas Development (IESC) said BME conducted a "limited and disjointed" assessment of the risk to water resources posed by its planned drilling and reached "largely unsupported" conclusions.
The wells, located in the catchment for the Fitzroy River, will each require 100 million litres of underground water, mixed with chemicals, to be injected at high pressure to fracture the rock and allow gas to flow to the surface more freely.
The IESC rejected Black Mountain's conclusion that Mount Hardman Creek, which runs through the drilling area and into the Fitzroy River, would not be affected by the drilling.
The Federal Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) was concerned about Project Valhalla even before it received the independent scientists' view.
The Department concluded the drilling was “likely to have a significant impact” on the critically endangered Northern Blue-tongued Skink and the vulnerable Greater Bilby and Largetooth Sawfish, the largest freshwater fish in Australia.
In March 2025, DCCEEW requested that BME provide a long list of additional information it needed to properly assess risks from the drilling.
On Monday, a DCCEEW spokeswoman said it was assessing the information to determine if it was adequate, at which stage it would be published for public comment.
Who is Black Mountain Energy?
BME, run by Texan Rhett Bennett, entered the Kimberley by buying petroleum titles from the Japanese giant Mitsubishi.
The oil and gas potential of the Canning Basin attracted major international companies, but they all left disappointed, selling out to smaller companies.
Hess departed in 2012, followed by ConocoPhillips two years later. Mitsubishi sold out in 2019, and Andrew Forrest’s Squadron Energy departed in 2021, then Origin left in 2022.
The majors had been put off by the high costs of operating in an area remote even by the standards of WA’s resources sector. The distance to any sizable gas market was another major impediment.
BME listed on the ASX in 2021, raising $11 million at 20 cents a share, leaving Rhett Bennett with a 78 per cent stake.
Investors lost from day one, with shares trading between 12 and 15 cents for a few months before sitting at about two cents for most of 2023.
The standing of the new company was not helped by the corporate regulator, ASIC, issuing it three infringement noticesin 2022 for greenwashing.
“BME had no credible basis for asserting that the natural gas it produced would be carbon neutral,” was one of ASIC’s concerns.
BME paid almost $40,000 for the infringements, an action that is not an admission of guilt.
The company briefly considered running computer servers in the remote outback to mine cryptocurrencies using power generated by its gas.
In September 2022, it told investors that environmental permitting was two-thirds complete, and it expected formal approval by mid-2023.
In late 2023, the board called it quits, recommending the company withdraw from the stock exchange.
The board argued that after spending more than $40 million on what it dubbed Project Valhalla and having $7.5 million of cash, a market capitalisation of $8.8 million “places no value on the Company’s assets.”
Today, BME is an unlisted public company with $4.8 million in cash as of June 30 2025, according to its half-yearly report lodged with ASIC, which revealed a $809,000 cash burn over six months.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday, The Guardian and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
Peter Milne
Peter Milne
Peter Milne
