Tailings Management

We are committed to managing impoundment facilities with the goal of eliminating risks to people and the environment, and causing zero harm.

An impoundment is any dam or engineered structure intended to confine a body of water, mine tailings or refining residue or any other solid or liquid waste material, greater than 30 hectares in size and above 2 metres above natural ground.

We manage impoundment facilities at active, inactive and closed sites around the world to store primarily two types of material, bauxite mine tailings and bauxite residue. Both materials are referred to generically as tailings.

Bauxite mine tailings are mud-like residues that remain after bauxite is washed at the mine site. Bauxite residue, which is a byproduct of the alumina refining process, consists of mud, some residual caustic soda and, in some cases, a coarse sand fraction.

Alcoa will comply with the Global Industry Standard on Tailings Management developed by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The Standard provides an international plan for the safe management of mine tailings storage facilities worldwide.

Alcoa maintains a detailed global inventory of our impoundment facilities. Within that inventory, we have 111 facilities identified in Australia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Guinea, Suriname and the United States. This mine tailings only inventory is shared on our web site and updated annually in July. The current list, effective July 2020, includes zero facilities classified as ‘extreme’ consequence; seven are classified with a “very high” potential consequence. Alcoa has committed, as part of our membership with ICMM, to be in conformance with the Standard by August 5, 2023. Also, all other mine tailings facilities operated by Alcoa, if not in a state of safe closure, will be in conformance with the Standard by August 5, 2025.