Cash-poor Kimberley fracker Black Mountain expects WA decision soon
The US-owned company is seeking funds from investors to stay a going concern while it awaits state and Federal approval.
Perth, the capital of Western Australia, is home to 2.3 million of the state's 3 million people. It sits on the Swan Coastal Plain between the Indian Ocean and the Darling Scarp.
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.
The US miner has held back findings that it drilled near Cockatoo nesting trees and has had its plans for protecting Perth's water supply rejected.
WA's environmental watchdog will consider the risk to Perth's water supply and whether the US miner can rehabilitate the forest it strip-mines.
The battle of jobs and Alcoa profits versus the jarrah forest and Perth's water supply will ramp up within weeks when the miner's plans are released.
Roger Cook granting Alcoa greater access to mine near Perth's dams risks could cost taxpayers billions of dollars and result in water restrictions
Within weeks, the US miner will reveal for public comment plans to strip mine 75 square kilometres of jarrah forest.
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