WAFA


Alcoa's jarrah clearing (Huntly mine site). This kind of forest removal has been going on for over 2 decades now. The Huntly mine is the world's biggest bauxite mining operation.

Alcoa is clearing Western Australia's best jarrah forests at an incredible rate. Vast areas of State Forest within an hour's drive of Perth (south east) are being devastated by bauxite mining. Darling Range bauxite is the lowest grade ore mined on a commercial scale anywhere in the world. Jarrah forests are unique and under threat from many areas. They need to be preserved, not cleared. Alcoa's present mineral lease covers 4,898 sq km of State forest. The current lease extends from Wundowie to the Preston River, south of Collie, plus a pocket at Julimar near Bindoon. Alcoa's lease allows them access to the bauxite from 1961 to 2044. Click here Map of Alcoa's Mineral Lease At present the royalty Alcoa is required to pay is just 1.65% on the value of alumina sales. Alcoa's refineries at Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup produce some 16 percent of world demand for alumina. Alcoa is an American based company and is the world's leading producer of primary aluminum, fabricated aluminum, and alumina.


Some of WA's best jarrah forest!!		Wood is bulldozed into piles ready to be burned

Bauxite production since 1995
(both Alcoa and Worsley):

1995 560 ha
1996 920 ha
1997 820 ha
1998 870 ha
1999 690 ha

For the next five years, the approximate area of forest proposed to be cleared for bauxite mining is 700 ha per year.

Clearing and then mining within metres of South Dandalup dam which is one of Perth's major water supplies

Mining in the South Dandalup dam catchment


		Jarrah logging has previously thinned the area in the foreground and now Alcoa is clearing and removing the topsoil to get bauxite. In the process they remove about 0.5 metres of topsoil and overburden, 1.5 metres of caprock (which they first drill and blast) plus two to 10 metres of laterite under that. So in their mining operations, they remove up to 12 metres of the earth's surface on which over the millennia the jarrah forest has grown and evolved.
After mining has removed most of the top soil from the area the law requires that the forest be rehabilitated. It is believed that Alcoa is experimenting with over 200 species of trees in the process. Jarrah is difficult to grow at the best of times, let alone under these appalling conditions. According to Alcoa, jarrah now comprises 80% of the tree component in rehabilitated areas. Just how successful they will be in the long term remains to be seen.

	After excavation, the soil containing the bauxite is transported from the forest down a conveyer belt spanning several kilometres to be processed at one of Alcoa's plants. In the foreground is the sludge that remains after the alumina has been removed from the bauxite.

Gold mining in the area (Not by Alcoa)
As with bauxite mining in the area, gold mining uses high explosives to extract soil. This process sends dust particles hundreds of metres into the air to be spread around the surrounding forest by wind. It is probably the most effective method of spreading Jarrah Dieback Disease ever invented.		If it isn't mining it's logging. Here the jarrah forest has been logged to within a short distance of one of Perth's major water supply dams

MORE PHOTOS

In Alcoa's Environment Health and Safety Policy it states that they will not compromise environmental values for profit or production.

It would appear that Alcoa does not regard our ancient jarrah forests as having any environmental values.