If the US miner is found to have mined too close to a large jarrah tree, it would trigger an automatic cancellation of its right to mine much of its lease.
WA government investigating if one dead tree could halt Alcoa's mining
If the US miner is found to have mined too close to a large jarrah tree, it would trigger an automatic cancellation of its right to mine much of its lease.
WA's environment regulator is investigating whether Alcoa breached a condition designed to protect endangered black cockatoos, which, if proven, could shut down much of its lucrative bauxite mining.
The probe was launched after Greens WA upper house member Jess Beckerling checked out a large jarrah tree on Alcoa's mine site just days before Christmas, which she says satellite imagery shows died within the past 12 months.
“The tree is standing on a rocky island in a massive mine-site ... one of the largest remaining jarrah trees in the area," she said.
Beckerling with the jarrah tree she measured to have a 6.7m circumference. Image supplied by Jess Beckerling
"After 100 years of logging and clearing, trees this size are rare and precious, which is why Alcoa is supposed to protect them,
“There was no way that a tree this size was going to survive this level of clearing, blasting and extracting so close to its base."
The question for the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation (DWER) is whether the US company conducted "mining activities" within 10m of a "significant tree" protected by the conditions of an exemption from the Environmental Protection Act it operates under.
Black Cockatoos nest in large tree hollows that only occur in the largest and oldest trees in the northern jarrah forest.
Has Alcoa breached its special exemption?
The Cook Government granted Alcoa the Section 6 exemption in December 2023, otherwise, its operation employing more than 4000 people would have been illegal once the WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) began assessing its activities shortly afterwards.
The exemption covers much of, but not all of, Alcoa's mining, as the EPA is legally only able to assess areas it has not considered before.
The WA government announcement said "any breach of conditions would see the exemption immediately cancelled."
Beckerling said Alcoa had mined within 9m of the tree.
An Alcoa spokesman said it took the conditions governing its operations seriously and considered it was compliant with conditions of its exemption.
"The tree was identified in 2014 pre-mining surveys, and a 10m buffer was applied," he said.
The area was cleared in 2020 and mined at various times up to March 2024, and Alcoa said none of this activity breached the buffer zone.
A DWER spokesman confirmed it was investigating the matter and said the regulator would not make further comment until the investigation was completed.
Legal advice from the Environmental Defender's Office (EDO) seen by Boiling Cold said if a breach was proven, it would be relatively simple to prosecute as the conduct does not have to be deliberate or negligent, nor shown to have caused harm.
The EDO wrote that the exemption order would cease to have effect from the date of a proven breach, meaning that any mining done after that date would be illegal.
The state government has the power to issue another Section 6 exemption order if the current one is cancelled.
Alcoa can strip mine 800 hectares of jarrah forest a year while the EPA assesses its operation - the equivalent of two Kings Parks. Image supplied by Jess Beckerling.
The exemption order restricts mining near two categories of trees - any large jarrah or marri trees which are classed as "significant trees," and "nesting trees" that have hollows that appear to have been used by black cockatoos.
Jarrah trees with a diameter greater than 2m are significant.
The exemption order bans mining within 10m of a significant or nesting tree, and from 2027, the banned area around a nesting tree is expanded to 50m.
The Alcoa spokesman said it has proposed a 30m buffer around significant and nesting trees for its future mining, which is under assessment by the EPA. This would provide greater protection to significant trees than current conditions, but allow mining much closer to nesting trees.
Beckerling said if a breach was not confirmed and Alcoa continued mining, the Government should increase the buffer around the trees to 50m now, not in 2027 as planned.
"A 10m buffer is wholly inadequate and a death sentence for trees like this,” she said.
Boiling Cold provides unmatched coverage of Alcoa in WA
The WA Mines Department is not convinced that drilling 105,000 exploration holes a year has a low environmental impact, questioned the value of the environmental offsets proposed by Alcoa, and noted that the US miner is not sharing information about endangered cockatoos on its mining lease.
An exclusive story based on a freedom of information request by Boiling Cold.
Australia's advertising watchdog ruled that Alcoa's claims to have rehabilitated 75 per cent of the WA jarrah forest it had strip-mined are unclear, overstated, without a reasonable basis, and not truthful or factual.
WA Premier Roger Cook endangered Perth's water supply by allowing Alcoa into high-risk areas, lowering protection standards, and ordering its environmental regulator to put mining jobs before water quality.
This exclusive Boiling Cold investigation was based on documents from numerous freedom of information requests and shortlisted as one of the three best political stories in WA in 2025.
Alcoa's mining threatens Perth's water supply
You won't read much about it in The West Australian Support informed and independent journalism
I worked in oil & gas in commercial and engineering roles for 20 years. Since 2016, I have written for The West Australian, WAtoday, The Guardian and Boiling Cold, winning five WA Media Awards.
The US miner's extraction of bauxite near Perth is facing significant public scrutiny for the first time, and many are resisting what is happening to their beloved jarrah forest.
Peter Milne
Peter Milne
Peter Milne
