Local environment defenders have been left devastated after Federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek greenlighted the expansion of the South32 Worsley aluminium mine near Boddington earlier this month.
“I’m gutted,” Jarrahdale Forest Protectors Deputy Chair Jeff Bremer said.
“We have worked diligently for the last four-and-a-half years documenting the carnage wrought by the strip mining of Jarrah forests to politicians and department heads in both WA and Canberra.
“The ministers have simply turned their backs and are sleepwalking us all into an environmental disaster.”
The approval will allow South32 to continue mining bauxite from the Northern Jarrah Forests (NJF) for at least the next decade, creating 200 jobs, and opening up previously unmined areas.
“The minister’s decision means a further 4500ha of critical habitat in the Northern Jarrah Forests will be bulldozed and burnt,” WA Forest Alliance’s Jason Fowler said.
“Boddington bauxite is some of the lowest grade ore in the world and lies in shallow layers beneath the highly biodiverse NJF. Strip mining this area provides minimal alumina for maximum damage to biodiversity and climate, making the Worsley mine one of the most environmentally destructive in Australia.”
Bauxite ore in Western Australia bears about 32 percent alumina, whereas mines in Weipa (Qld) and the Gove Peninsula (NT) sit at around 50 percent.
Australian economist and former head of Treasury Dr Ken Henry also came out firing during a speech at the Australia Institute last Monday, expressing his belief that policy makers have betrayed young people and our future generations.
“We have political leaders who insist that mining and forestry underwrite Australian prosperity. I will state it plainly. Those who believe this nonsense, cannot be trusted with the wellbeing of future generations,” he said.
According to the Chamber of Minerals and Energy of WA, alumina is the state’s third most valuable mineral commodity, accounting for almost six percent of mineral sales value.
In the 2023/24 financial year, the value of alumina and bauxite mined in Western Australia amounted to around $6.58 billion Australian dollars. But royalties collected by the state for alumina mining last year were valued at $108.7 million, which equates to less than one percent of state tax revenue.
Iron ore mining, by comparison, delivered over $10 billion in royalties into WA coffers.
Alcoa has said their total contribution to the Australian economy has a number of additional measures; last year they “invested $2.7 billion with 1520 Australian suppliers”, and paid $5.2 million in community contributions.
And according to Alcoa, they employ over 4000 people across Australia (mostly in WA), and have trained up more than 2600 apprentices, trainees and graduates over the past six decades.
“But let’s be real, the alumina industry employs approximately 7000 people in a total state workforce of 1.54 million, i.e., 0.46 percent of the state’s workforce,” Dr Jeff Bremer said.
He believes it’s high time that governments give more weight to economic sustainability and the legacy we leave for future generations when making decisions, a point echoed by Dr Ken Henry last Monday.
“Whether you agree or not, bauxite reserves will eventually run out and a good government will stop taking advice from the mining companies and develop its own plans for transitioning towards a cessation of mining before the costs are too great. Based on everything that our most expert scientists and engineers can tell us, we are already there,” Dr Bremer said.
The state government has estimated that bauxite mining has about 50 years left at its current rate of extraction.
“Premier Cook talks up the billions of dollars contributed by Alcoa but what cost do we put on even a single extinction of our dwindling native species?” Dr Bremer said.
“We’ve got all sorts of treasures in these forests that are recognised all over the world. Are we really going to knock it all down for 7000 jobs?
“The younger generation will inherit billions of dollars in debt for remediation costs and a lost ecosystem their parents once enjoyed.
“Our legacy will be debt, abandoned mine sites and museums full of extinct animals – all on our watch.”
Alcoa disputes that its mining activities threaten the long-term survival of ecosystems.
“Alcoa Australia is confident our rehabilitation practices are successfully re-establishing a healthy jarrah forest ecosystem. We are not aware of any scientific evidence that the jarrah forest cannot be returned to areas mined for bauxite,” a spokesperson said.
“While some elements of the returned forest will take many years to develop, extensive research and practical experience give us confidence that we are on a positive trajectory.
“That includes the return of native fauna with peer-reviewed research identifying that 100 percent of mammals and around 90 percent of birds and reptiles have returned to restored areas of around 20 years of age.”
Dr Jeff Bremer countered that Alcoa’s methodology for recording the presence of animals in rehabilitation areas was considered ‘flawed’ science.
“Alcoa make misleading statements about species richness by exploiting people’s ignorance regarding its meaning,” he said.
“100 percent species return just means you can find one member of each of the listed species in an area.
“Who makes the list is another question; despite digging very large holes, Alcoa does not survey underground fauna or flora.
“Species richness tells you nothing about the biodiversity, which is measured as the relative abundance of each species.
“Where relative abundance is low for a species, they are more likely to go extinct – exactly what has been happening for the last 60 years as Alcoa and South32 continues clearing habitats at ever increasing rates.”
The spokesperson for Alcoa said the company had made a “broader commitment” in 2023 to rehabilitate more land than it mined, pledging to “increase areas being rehabilitated to 1000ha per year by 2027” and “cap clearing for mining at 800ha a year”.
But to add ballast to Dr Bremer’s point, last November the first independent, non-governmental assessment of Alcoa’s 60 years of rehabilitation efforts awarded the miner two out of a possible five stars, and questioned whether Alcoa could ever fully restore the sections of Northern Jarrah Forest it has mined.
“Alcoa have spent 60 years of operation trying to come up with rehabilitation that works,” one of the study’s authors Professor Kingsley Dixon said.
“They’ve spent more than any other global mining company on trying to find environmental solutions to the forest clearing.
“The scientific community is clear: it is not a lack of knowledge but a lack of the ecological fabric to create a jarrah forest that is the issue.”
The federal government’s blessing of the South32 Worsley expansion in the immediate aftermath of this fairly damning assessment of bauxite mining cuts deep for the many who raised objections to it.
Despite the disappointment felt, local environmentalists say they won’t be cowed into submission.
Especially because – a little closer to home – a plan to clear a much larger swathe of Jarrah forest for bauxite mining is currently being assessed by the state environment regulator.
Last week the public learned that Alcoa had received approval from WA’s Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) to amend parts of their Huntly mining expansion proposal in the NJF, which included a plan to revisit a previously mined site called O’Neil.
Alcoa first referred plans to the EPA in 2020 to open two new mine sites between Jarrahdale and Dwellingup – ‘Myara North’ and ‘Holyoake’ – which constituted up to 6700 hectares of forest clearing, and potential impact on up to 42,415ha.
According to the original proposal, the new Myara North mine region skirted the northern fringe of the Serpentine Dam.
But last year, an FOI request unveiled serious concerns from Water Corporation that Alcoa’s mining activities were “certain” to contaminate Perth’s drinking water supply.
They estimated that the cost of treatment for all dams would be in the order of $3.25 billion if all intended mining and exploration from Alcoa’s currently approved 2023-2027 Mining Management Program went ahead.
Alcoa has explained they have now amended their “proposed future Huntly mine plans, reducing the overall area to be cleared and removing mining areas from the referral that fall within drinking water Reservoir Protection Zones (RPZ) in response to stakeholder feedback”.
“The changes we’ve made to our plans reflect our commitment to listen to our stakeholders and the community and develop a plan that delivers improved environmental and social outcomes,” a spokesperson for the company said.
But Alcoa’s claim that it has ‘reduced’ the footprint of its proposed clearing is disingenuous.
Its latest amendment shows that it is currently seeking to clear up to a combined total of 7500ha of vegetation between the Myara North, Holyoake and O’Neil mine sites in a ‘development envelope’ of 23,900 ha. While the total area of impacted forest is significantly reduced, the amount of land which will be denuded has, in fact, expanded since 2020, with last week’s inclusion of the O’Neil mine region.
And conservation groups have slammed the approved amendments as ‘greenwashing spin’.
“Despite the rhetoric of minimising impact, their latest submission shows Alcoa will clear more vegetation rather than less, while squeezing up the mine development boundary,” Dr Bremer said.
“Water Corporation guidelines show that the risk of turbidity and contamination rise dramatically when sub-catchment clearing exceeds 25 percent of the sub-catchment area.
“The revised Myara North maps submitted to the EPA show their pit plan and it is estimated that approximately 50 percent of the forested area will be cleared.
“It’s clear that Alcoa’s current plan will still be a significant and ongoing threat to the quality of water in Serpentine Dam.
“Furthermore, the new map reveals their intention to push a dirt road and infrastructure corridor through the RPZ to the shores of Serpentine Dam – clearly for the purpose of extracting valuable and now scarce drinking water from the dam for use in their mining operations.”
Alcoa has confirmed that it is seeking to draw water from the Serpentine Dam via a pipeline it plans to construct for its Myara North mining activities and is currently in discussions with Water Corporation about this.
A spokesperson for the company explained how water was used during its mining activities, but when The Examiner asked how much water Alcoa would ideally like to use from the Serpentine Dam annually, and also over the course of the life of the Myara North lease, there was no direct answer provided.
“Further details will be available in the Environmental Review Document which we anticipate the EPA will release for public comment in the first half of this year,” the spokesperson said.
Dr Jeff Bremer explained that when the EPA did release the review document, the public would have a limited window to scrutinise it and respond.
“Sadly, that’s the playbook for public review of environmental proposals,” he said. “We estimate we will have to read a 7000-page submission from Alcoa (that was the size of South32’s document).
“It’s hard enough to read the material in 10 weeks let alone respond.
“In the context of past decisions made by both the state and federal environmental regulators, we do not expect anything else but a minister-driven approval to go ahead.
“They have shown time and again that expert economic and scientific advice can and will be overruled.
“However, this issue is too important not to respond and the Jarrahdale Forest Protectors will do all we can to save the Northern Jarrah Forest.
“The fight to save this precious natural heritage for future generations is not over.”
