The Conservation Council of WA (CCWA) has called for further scrutiny on potential environmental impacts around a proposal by Alcoa to extract gallium, a critical mineral, from its bauxite operations.
US-based Alcoa will be among the first to benefit from a $13 billion critical minerals deal between the United States and Australia inked after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s meeting with President Donald Trump this week.
Alcoa's funding will help develop a gallium refinery in Wagerup, 120 kilometres south of Perth.
CCWA Campaign Director Mia Pepper said that putting environment, drinking water and Northern Jarrah Forest at risk for relatively small quantities of gallium did not stack up.
“Alcoa has mined the world's only jarrah forests in Western Australia since the 1960s and has two expansion proposals before the state's Environment Protection Authority (EPA),” Ms Pepper said.
“We are eager to know whether Alcoa’s proposal is to extract gallium from existing mine waste, which could be a pathway to transition out of bauxite mining, towards a phase of ongoing recycling of mine waste and restoration.
“Alcoa’s current plans to expand bauxite mining before the WA EPA have been met with unprecedented opposition from the public. Any proposal seeking to increase bauxite mining and production of alumina for gallium in the Northern Jarrah Forest would be fiercely opposed.
“There is no tenable way to support increased mining from an environmental perspective. Alcoa’s operations are pushing the Northern Jarrah Forest and the threatened species that rely on this habitat to the brink of extinction.
“The WA EPA received 59,000 public submissions on Alcoa’s expansion plans during the recent public comment period, which is a clear statement that West Australians have had enough of forest clearing, the decimation of habitat for critically endangered species, and the imminent threat of contamination of Perth’s drinking water supplies.
“The extraction of gallium was not included in Alcoa’s recent expansion plans for its WA bauxite operations. We would expect that any such proposal would go through a rigorous environmental assessment process.
“The deal struck between Australia and the US highlights that government support, funding and trade agreements are increasingly focused on defense not the energy transition that was pitched to Australians ahead of the election.
“Mining has costs for our environment and communities, and CCWA is well aware of the need to access minerals for renewables. But it’s a different proposition altogether to put our environment under increasing pressure simply to fuel defense measures.
“We are deeply concerned about language around streamlining and deregulation and the regulations which might end up on the chopping block. Our environment laws have been failing to protect nature and the federal government is just weeks away from releasing draft amendments to our Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act.
“Industry groups have been out today saying stronger Federal laws could threaten projects like this, when in fact these federal laws are a thin line of defense for our environment.
“With the current State Development Bill proposal being played-out in WA, we have additional concerns about any further exemptions from environmental laws that projects like this might be granted under the modification order provision.
“No project, regardless of how critical, should come at the expense of our environment and no company should be above the law.