About GeoGAS
GeoGAS provides Laboratory and Consulting services to the mining and CSG industries.
GeoGAS has over 30 years’ experience in consulting and laboratory testing and one of the most comprehensive gas reservoir databases in Australia. Our experience and capabilities cover underground mine gas management through to coal bed methane gas production.
Our testing and consulting services help our customers to manage gas released during the mining process, define the nature and value of their coal and gas resources, prepare CSG statements for lease applications and comply with environmental legislation on carbon and greenhouse gas emissions.
SAFETY FIRST
At GeoGAS, we are committed to putting Health and Safety first.
Our Safety Goal is that our people, contractors, customers and members of the public are not injured due to our activities or actions.
GeoGAS has a formal ‘Health and Safety Policy’ and ‘Health and Safety Plan’ by which all employees must abide.
GeoGAS was established in 1990 in Wollongong by Dr Ray Williams, a coal and engineering geologist. Since then it has grown its consulting and laboratory testing capabilities to provide a comprehensive service in support of mine gas management and gas production.
GeoGAS’ fast desorption gas content method was developed in 1993 to provide faster turnaround times needed in gas content compliance testing for outburst management. The method is extensively used in mine exploration and is arguably the most widely used gas content method in the Australian coal industry. Allied to the fast desorption gas content method is the Desorption Rate Index (DRI) which is used to define outburst threshold limits.
GeoGAS opened its second laboratory in Mackay in 1996 to service mines in the Bowen Basin of central Queensland.
By the late 1990’s GeoGAS had a broad range of consulting services built around laboratory testing, mine gas management, gas reservoir assessment and gas emission/production modelling. The concept of gas domain modelling was introduced in 1999 and has since been used to rationalise exploration programs, decrease risk and provide input to uncertainty modelling.
GeoGAS entered the coal bed methane (CBM) industry in 2000 by providing laboratory and gas production assessments for the Moranbah Gas Project. This was the first successful commercial CBM project in Australia.
GeoGAS attained NATA accreditation in gas chromatography testing at both its Mackay and Wollongong laboratories in May 2013.
Our Team
Christian Boucher
Senior Consultant
Christian Boucher is an experienced Mining Engineer with an operational background in coal mine gas drainage. He holds a Grad Dip in Mine Ventilation and has extensive experience in project management.
Michael Slater
Principal Consultant
Michael Slater is a Mining Engineer with more than 41 years in Australian Coal spanning research, operations and over 20 years consulting with GeoGAS. He holds a Grad Dip in Mine Ventilation and has specialist experience in all aspects of mine ventilation, mine atmosphere monitoring, gas management and planning. He currently leads GeoGAS’ consulting team and specialises in fugitive emission assessment and reporting services.
Chris Davey
Laboratories Manager
Chris has over 20 years’ of laboratory experience and thirteen years’ experience in the mining industry with extensive knowledge and expertise in gas content and Adsorption Isotherm testing. Chris is a GeoGAS Facility Signatory (for the purposes of NATA accreditation) and also our company’s Signatory Assessor.
Quality assurance
GeoGAS has a NATA accredited Quality System.
GeoGAS delivers certainty in testing by ensuring its testing procedures and data analysis are of the highest quality standards. GeoGAS also has a comprehensive database for data validation.
GeoGAS' Wollongong and Mackay laboratories are accredited for compliance with ISO/IEC 17025.
GeoGAS is NATA accredited in gas content testing (Q1 by Calculation, Q2 and Q3), apparent relative density testing, gas chromatography testing of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen and oxygen at both its Mackay and Wollongong laboratories. In addition the Wollongong laboratory is NATA accredited in proximate and relative density analysis.
Laboratory testing equipment
GeoGAS’ laboratory testing equipment is operated and calibrated in accordance with established work instructions and calibration schedules.
Highly trained laboratory staff
GeoGAS provides specialised on-the-job training to its laboratory staff and has documented procedures for laboratory work.
Result validation and report checks
All test results undergo an extensive validation and check procedure, before being released to the customer as a Final Report.