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An excavator works at an Alcoa mine site near Jarrahdale, Western Australia, March 28, 2025. Pittsburgh’s Public Source via AP<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh-based Alcoa will pay the Australian government a settlement the company put at $36 million for \u201cunlawfully\u201d clearing tracts of endangered forest without approvals between 2019 and 2025.<\/p>\n
The metals giant began mining bauxite \u2014 the raw ingredient for aluminum \u2014 from beneath Australia\u2019s Northern Jarrah forest in the 1960s, but its footprint has swelled in recent years, drawing new scrutiny from regulators and the public.<\/p>\n
Senator Murray Watt, Australia\u2019s environment and water minister, said the payment \u2014 $55 million in Australian dollars \u2014 settles a longstanding question of whether Alcoa should enjoy exemptions from federal environmental processes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are committed to responsible operations and welcome this important step in transitioning our approvals to a contemporary assessment process that provides increased certainty for our operations and our people into the future,\u201d Alcoa President and CEO William F. Oplinger said in a statement. \u201cWe\u2019re proud of our more than 60 years as a leading Australian aluminum producer and the role we are now playing in support of critical minerals production.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s well and truly the largest amount that\u2019s been paid by way of an enforceable undertaking around the environment laws nationally,\u201d Watt said in an interview with Australian broadcasters<\/a> Feb. 18.<\/p>\n Alcoa maintains it has complied with federal law but agreed to the payments to \u201cacknowledge historical clearing.\u201d<\/p>\n The agreement includes an 18-month exemption for the company to operate while seeking those approvals.<\/p>\n Last year, Pittsburgh\u2019s Public Source traveled to Australia<\/a> to investigate Alcoa\u2019s plans for the forest, environmental effects and community concerns.<\/p>\n Alcoa, a global metalmaker valued at $16 billion, mines about 34 million metric tons of bauxite annually to generate 9 million tons of alumina. Much of this is sourced from its vast mine sites in the Northern Jarrah Forest<\/a> near Perth. The endangered forest is a recognized biodiversity hotspot and hosts threatened species including black cockatoos and a variety of marsupials.<\/p>\n The company runs a rehabilitation program to restore former mined sites, but a prominent botanist who once tried to aid those efforts now maintains it\u2019s ineffective, and a growing chorus of Australian scientists<\/a> join those criticisms.<\/p>\n Advertisements the company sponsored last summer promoting its rehabilitation program drew the attention of an ad standards watchdog, which issued a report stating \u201cthe advertisement was inaccurate and likely to mislead or deceive target consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n Alcoa is still tussling with regulators in the state of Western Australia.<\/p>\n
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