An expert, independent of government and industry, explains how prolonged industrial activity on the Burrup Peninsula in WA endangers an Australian marvel.
WA's environmental watchdog expects to release Alcoa's current mining plan and its expansion plan to extract bauxite from WA's jarrah forest for public comment within weeks.
Darren Walsh, chair of the WA Environmental Protection Authority, said it received the final documents from Alcoa last week, and after the two parties prepared material for publication, he expected a public release within the month.
Both plans will be fiercely resisted by people concerned about Alcoa's failure to fully rehabilitate any of the 280 square kilometres of jarrah forest it has cleared over six decades, and the “foreseeable” risk it could render water from Serpentine Dam - Perth's biggest - unusable.
However, Alcoa - which employs about 4000 people in WA - is strongly backed by the Cook government, which knowingly endangered Perth's water supply by weakening constraints on its mining operations.
It is also a crucial decision for the $12 billion US company. Its chief executive, Bill Oplinger, told Wall Street in February that approval to expand its Huntly mine was Alcoa's "number one" lever to boost global earnings.
This week, the EPA accepted an Alcoa proposal to reduce the footprint of its current mining plan out to 2027 and combine two overlapping mining plans referred to the EPA by the WA Forest Alliance into one assessment.
Timeline to a million tonnes a year decision
The approvals process is well behind schedule.
In August 2024, the EPA had expected to begin 10 weeks of public consultation for both plans in January. This required Alcoa to supply two Environmental Review Documents, which was only completed this week.
On Wednesday, Alcoa chief financial officer Molly Beerman told investors that the mine expansion would allow it to produce an additional one million tonnes a year of alumina and cut its costs by $US15 to $US20 a tonne.
"That's how much the poor bauxite quality is hurting us now," she said.
"So, we'll have a nice financial uptick, both in terms of volume and the cost profile."
Beerman said the miner had supplied to the EPA all the material it needed to review, and the Authority had delayed the public comment period.
However, EPA chair Darren Walsh said it had decided with Alcoa's support to issue for public review the documents for both the near-term mining plan and the mine expansion simultaneously.
This was for the sake of efficiency and to allow the combined and cumulative impacts on the northern jarrah forest to be considered.
Walsh said that after amending the document four times, Alcoa had supplied the final ERD for the mine expansion in late April.
"However, the other ERD relating to Alcoa’s bauxite mining activities on the Darling Range spanning the years 2023 to 2027 had to be returned to the proponent several times to address outstanding issues," he said.
Walsh said Alcoa's final ERD for the near-term mining plans had been received last week, and the Authority was reviewing its suitability for public comment release.
Beerman said Alcoa was encouraged that the EPA was still working towards approvals in the first quarter of 2026.
However, the EPA makes recommendations, not decisions.
These recommendations are published for public comment, an appeals convenor considers these comments and makes a report to the environment minister who then makes a decision.
Walsh said the EPA was working towards completing both assessments by March 2026, but the timeline was dependent on a number of factors.
"This includes the complexity of information sought by the EPA, the number and length of public submissions made during consultations, potential requests by the proponent to amend the proposal during the assessment, and the amount, suitability, efficiency and quality of information submitted by the proponent," he said.
"It should also be noted that the timing between the publishing of the EPA report and the Minister for Environment’s final decision on a proposal is influenced by both the appeals process and the consultation with decision-making authorities."
Alcoa's expansion plans share similarities with a 2024 approval for South32 to expand mining operations at its Worsley alumina refinery. However, Alcoa's expansion is much larger than South32's, and crucially, its proximity to Serpentine Dam threatens Perth's water supply.
The Worsley Environmental Review Document was released for 10 weeks of public comment in June 2022. South32's responses to public submissions were published in March 2024, the EPA made its recommendation in July 2024, and the WA environment minister gave approval in December 2024.
Even if the EPA can make its recommendations by the first quarter of 2026, it is next to impossible for the environmental minister to make his decision in the same quarter.
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
Peter Milne
