Lines attributable to Jason Fowler, Senior Campaigner, West Australian Forest Alliance
South32 has clearly read the writing on the wall; mining in the Northern Jarrah Forest isn’t a viable option for the future, especially given the massive public backlash we’re seeing.
Investors support this move, too, with South32’s shares going up in value following this announcement, and Alcoa’s devaluing. Getting out of the jarrah forest is a good thing.
As a result of this, all bauxite mining in the jarrah forest is now owned by one American company, one that has a dismal record of compliance with Australian laws.
Alcoa says it’s here for the future, but it’s just signed a big deal with Woodside and now acquired the Worsley refinery, which is still run on coal.
We know Alcoa’s rehabilitation efforts are a farce, so why should we trust them to now take over thousands of hectares of land yet to be rehabilitated by South32?
Alcoa’s proposed expansion should be scrapped, because while it is under assessment, we already know the impact: strip-mining for bauxite destroys habitat, endangers our drinking water, and is pushing threatened wildlife to the brink of extinction.
Lines attributable to Matt Roberts, Executive Director, Conservation Council of Western Australia
West Australians are fed up with the wholesale destruction of the Northern Jarrah Forest – the world’s only jarrah forest.
With 59,000 public submissions lodged to the Environmental Protection Authority opposing Alcoa’s expansion plans, clearly it has lost all semblance of social license in WA.
Alcoa consistently underestimates the public’s opposition to its operations. They will continue to face resistance from the WA community until our forests are protected. An investment in the destruction of forests in Perth’s drinking water catchment is not a safe bet.
It’s interesting that this acquisition comes just a couple of weeks after Alcoa’s fanfare that it wouldn’t be doing any drilling or mining in the Perth hills region in the near future.
It must have known the South32 deal was coming when they made those announcements – and now that the full picture has emerged, clearly it was a lot less about giving back to the community and a lot more about trying, once again, to buy social license.
Lines attributable to Alyx Douglas (she/her), WA Campaigns Manager, the Wilderness Society:
This acquisition does not change the fundamental problem: industrial-scale bauxite mining in the Northern Jarrah Forest is already over-extended and further expansion approvals should not proceed.
South32 has already secured controversial approvals for major expansion in this globally significant forest, and those decisions should now be urgently reconsidered rather than simply passed on to a new owner.
With Alcoa now inheriting these operations, the government must ensure it does not inherit outdated approvals and weak safeguards. This is the right moment to not only review the state agreements governing mining in the Northern Jarrah Forest but to draw a clear line: no new expansions in this irreplaceable ecosystem.