‘I know there’s concern’ says Alcoa Australia | Australian Markets
Alcoa’s new native chief Elsabe Muller insists the US bauxite giant is placing “all effort in” to win approvals to keep mining the State’s Jarrah Forest because the plans endure prolonged public scrutiny.
The Pittsburgh-headquartered miner and alumina refiner is preventing to secure two environmental ticks from the State Government to broaden its bauxite mine within the South West, and to increase manufacturing capability on the Pinjarra Alumina Refinery.
Asked whether or not she was assured Alcoa would get the inexperienced gentle for its growth plans, Ms Muller informed a WA Mining Club occasion the miner was “putting all effort in to make sure that we’re getting the support to get approval.”
Alcoa’s current approvals have been locked in below a State settlement in 1961 and due to this fact haven’t gone by WA’s present environmental evaluation regime to make sure they meet trendy requirements.
“For any mining company, you tend to mine where the deposit can be economically extracted. Now, in our case in WA, you find it in the Jarrah Forest,” operations president Ms Muller mentioned on Thursday.
She referenced analysis from the Global Aluminium Council that claimed demand for the steel would increase between 30 per cent and 40 per cent by 2030. “It will double by 2050 because you do need it to decarbonise. There’s no substitute,” she mentioned.
“We obviously need to enter new mining areas so that our refineries can keep operating for decades to come.”
WA’s Environmental Protection Authority launched a 12-week public remark period for the plans on the finish of May, a transfer Alcoa mentioned earlier this month would imply it was unlikely a Ministerial choice can be made by early 2026, as had been anticipated.
The miner has additionally confronted substantial neighborhood concern because it was served an official discover by the Department of Water and Environmental Regulation in 2023, after inspectors discovered Alcoa had constructed a pipeline and funnelled poisonous PFAS-contaminated waste over Samson Brook dam regardless of a works software nonetheless being “under assessment”.
Asked how it will handle these considerations during the public suggestions period, Ms Muller mentioned on Thursday that Alcoa had “never impacted drinking water” and had applied a reservoir safety zone “to absolutely make sure we will not”.
“I know that there’s concern. We’ve never impacted drinking water.”
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