Alcoa is storing enough caustic bauxite residue to fill Optus Stadium more than 350 times in areas south of Perth that have failed to be certified as stable.
The burden of enforcing special arrangements to allow Alcoa to keep mining bauxite has forced WA’s environment regulator to severely cut its efforts to protect nature throughout the rest of the state.
The Environmental Protection Authority has warned Alcoa to provide the information it needs on time,or risk stricter conditions on its mining in WA forests.
South32 will slash $830 million off the value of its WA alumina business in response to proposed environmental protections the miner says threaten the viability of its operations in the state.
The OK for South32 to clear 39 square kilometres of jarrah forest near Boddington has been slammed as disgraceful by environmental groups.
Water Corporation concluded that contamination of Perth’s dams is “certain” but the state government heavily watered-down its recommendations to reduce the risks from bauxite mining.
Alcoa’s funding will support a forest research centre for five years and will also boost its own team of environmental researchers from four to eleven.
The WA environment regulator opposed Alcoa’s mining but proposed safeguards if it went ahead. The Cook government ignored the first recommendation and watered down the second.
Alcoa’s troubled bauxite mining in WA’s jarrah forest will have extra government scrutiny costing $10.5 million over four years as the US miner seeks to repair its tarnished environmental credentials.
Rationalisation in the alumina market will create the conditions for a brighter future for the industry,a fund manager says.
An Alcoa worker died in a head-on collision on Monday travelling to a bauxite mine near Pinjarra. Worksafe will determine if the accident is a workplace fatality.