Source : BUSINESS NEWS
Previously unidentified environmental and cultural factors have led Alcoa to reassess proposed haul roads at its Darling Range mines in an amended, lower disturbance mine plan.
Alcoa’s scrutinised bauxite mining operations in the South West are subject to rolling five-year mine management plans, required as part of its state agreement.
Under a government exemption made late in 2023, Alcoa is allowed to continue to operate on a constrained basis while its Darling Range mine plans for the 2022-2026 and 2023-2027 periods are reviewed by the Environmental Protection Authority.
The 2023-2027 mine plan was conditionally approved in December 2023, days before the EPA committed to scrutinising Alcoa’s activities in the area.
It has now been consolidated with the 2022-2026 mine management plan and amended.
Among the changes is a significant reduction in the disturbance footprint of Alcoa’s bauxite mining operations, within the same mining footprint.
The amendments will reduce the proposed Huntly mining disturbance area by 933 hectares to 13,788ha, and cut the Willowdale disturbance area by 330ha to 846ha.
The proposed development envelope will remain the same for both mines.
Alcoa has also introduced 411ha of disturbance for a new haul road, to be run along a new route to avoid stream zone vegetation and heritage areas.
An Alcoa spokesperson told Business News the roads had been adjusted as a result of new information which had come to light after the 2023-2027 mine plan was submitted to the EPA.
“The key reason for realignment of haul roads is to avoid areas of cultural and environmental value that were identified in surveys conducted after release of the 2023-2027 [mine management plan],” they said.
The spokesperson noted the significant reduction in overall disturbance footprint within the mining zone.
“The changes between the two MMPs, while remaining within the same proposed development envelope, include a net reduction in total disturbance of 1,323 ha across the Huntly and Willowdale development envelopes,” they said.
In agreeing to the amendment, EPA chair Darren Walsh noted that the overall proposed disturbance footprint from Alcoa’s operations would be reduced.
“The overall reduction in disturbance is likely to reduce impacts to flora and vegetation, terrestrial fauna, inland waters, terrestrial environmental quality and greenhouse gas emissions,” he wrote.
“There may be additional impacts to flora and vegetation values and terrestrial fauna values associated with the addition of the haul roads.
“However, the impacts are expected to be substantially the same character as the existing referred proposal.”
The nature of the heritage values identified at the Darling Range operations is not known.
The amendments to the mine management plan come after Alcoa sought permission to clear around 1,800 hectares of land in the O’Neil region of Huntly late last year.
O’Neil was mined until 2014 and had been progressively rehabilitated until 2021, but Alcoa hopes to revisit the area which sits within the confines of its development envelope.
