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Mine Rehabilitation Award
Western Australian State Development Minister, Clive Brown, presented the Golden Gecko Award for environmental excellence to Alcoa's Managing Director in Australia Wayne Osborn at a ceremony in Perth last week.
Alcoa received the award for its work in restoring the botanical diversity of the jarrah forest after bauxite mining in South-Western Australia.
Minister Brown said "companies such as the 2002 Golden Gecko recipients are at the leading edge of developing techniques and practices. This will ensure that our community can continue to enjoy the benefits derived from resources development, whilst handing on a sound environment to future generations."
"The 2002 Awards recipients re-affirmed a growing commitment across the resources sector to achieving environmental excellence," said the Minister,
Mr Brown also said the nominations were of the highest standard yet seen in the awards.
The Golden Gecko Awards are conducted each year to encourage the resources industry to achieve excellence, recognise achievements and to show the public that a balance can be struck between environmental values and economic development.
Jarrah Forest Restoration
Alcoa's Mining and Environment groups have succeeded in re-establishing young jarrah forest on rehabilitated mined areas with plant species richness equal to the surrounding jarrah forests.
Flora counts on randomly placed monitoring plots in the restored forest areas confirmed that the average number of indigenous plant species in 15 month old rehabilitation has seen Alcoa meet a critical strategic goal in year 2000 for its Western Australian bauxite mining operations.
Jarrah forest restoration is an extremely complex task, given the very large number of plant species present. Jarrah forests are one of the most plant species rich forests in the world, outside of tropical rain forests.
Alcoa operates two bauxite mines at Willowdale and Huntly in the Darling Range of south-western Western Australia, 80-140km south of Perth. A third mine at Jarrahdale operated from 1963 to1998 and has now been completely rehabilitated.
The Huntly mine is the largest bauxite producer in the world. Bauxite from the two mines is processed to alumina at Alcoa's three refineries at Kwinana, Pinjarra and Wagerup. These refineries produce some 15% of the world's alumina, which is then shipped interstate or overseas for smelting to produce aluminium.
Alcoa has developed or shared in the development of many innovative practices and technologies which have contributed to the company achieving one of its year 2000 milestones that; "the average number of indigenous plant species in 15-month-old rehabilitation is 100% of the number found in representative jarrah forest sites".
The areas of development include; seed treatment, seed application, topsoil handling, mine planning and native plant propagation. The use of smoke to stimulate seed germination and the development of a computerised air seeder to apply indigenous species seed mix immediately after soil ripping, are two good examples of techniques that have helped to increase plant species numbers in rehabilitated areas.
Alcoa's Marrinup nursery also produced nearly 230,000 plants from cuttings and tissue culture for planting in areas rehabilitated in 2000. These plants, known as recalcitrant species, do not normally re-establish from seed.
Fundamental to the success of Alcoa's programs has been a business culture that is committed to the rehabilitation goal and that ensures resources are dedicated to improvement and operational priorities.
"This achievement reflects the enormous dedication of our employees, from truck drivers and machinery operators through to environmental scientists and managers" according to Alcoa World Alumina Australia's Managing Director, Wayne Osborn.
"I congratulate all current and past Alcoa employees and our many external partners at universities, research organisations and other community partners who have contributed to this achievement. The jarrah forest is a highly valued resource for the people of Western Australia.
We believe that our mine rehabilitation is of the highest standard.
Alcoa's forest rehabilitation techniques are world's best practice. This gives the company confidence that societies' need for aluminium will continue to be met by production from our Western Australian mining and refining operations well into the future."
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