The Honourable David Templeman, Minister for the Environment, Climate Change, Peel and Member for Mandurah, Alcoa’s research partners and industry peers celebrated this achievement with Alcoa staff at an event held in Perth on Tuesday 29 April.
Alcoa was invited to author a series of papers for a special edition of this journal following its receipt of a Model Project Award from the Society for Ecological Restoration International in 2003 for "Returning the Botanical Richness of the Jarrah Forest in Restored Bauxite Mines in Western Australia".
The journal was published in December 2007 and contains 15 papers examining a range of aspects of Alcoa’s mine rehabilitation, from soil structure and invertebrate return to fire ecology.
Raphael Costa, Vice President of Alcoa’s Australia-Asia operations said, "The material in this journal is the result of over four decades of research and development".
"When Alcoa started mining in WA in 1963, the company made a decision that it must operate in a manner that exceeded both government and public expectations in the area of environmental management, and we continue to follow this philosophy today".
"The ability to restore a piece of damaged land relies heavily on a good understanding of the area’s ecology".
"Alcoa’s environmental staff work in collaboration with local universities, government agencies and private researchers to understand the Jarrah Forrest ecosystem.
The benefits of Alcoa’s work in the area of mine rehabilitation are multiplied through the sharing of knowledge, activities and research advances with other stakeholders and this continues to be a key objective for the company.
"We frequently publish our research findings in scientific journals and at conferences and workshops in Australia and overseas, and we invite the public to visit our operations, so that they can come and see what we do first hand", explained Mr Costa.
"To date, Alcoa’s WA mining group has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and over 100 printed conference papers, and nearly 600,000 people have visited our operations."
Media contact:
Anika Wall on (08) 9530 2341 or 0404 800 054.
