Woodside sold the project to an insubstantial company to avoid a few hundred million in decommissioning costs: now it and its competitors will pay the price.
WA Premier Mark McGowan warned Alcoa to lift its game or face curtailed mining, but his successor Roger Cook slashed water supply protections after a possibly empty threat from the US miner.
WA is the world's largest supplier of iron ore, lithium and garnet, the second-largest for diamonds and alumina, and in the top five for cobalt, gold, rare earths and zircon.
The iron ore price that had held up in the economic chaos of 2020 is beginning to fall, and the worst case of $US50 a tonne would shatter government revenue just when it is needed the most.
WA’s charge into the battery minerals industry is gathering pace, with Kidman Resources and Chilean lithium giant SQM looking to build Kwinana’s second lithium refinery.
