"Alcoa hit with record fine for unlawfully clearing WA jarrah forests for bauxite mine", 18 February 2026

US mining giant Alcoa has been forced to pay $55 million after unlawfully clearing parts of a Western Australian native forest to mine bauxite.

The federal government … confirmed Alcoa did not seek relevant approvals when it cleared a known habitat for nationally protected species in the Northern Jarrah Forest, south of Perth, between 2019 and 2025.

The fine — described as "unprecedented" by the office of the Environment Minister Murray Watt — is part of a remediation deal the bauxite miner struck with the government to enable it to continue its operations…

Threatened species protection

The settlement includes a new agreement covering Alcoa's Huntly and Willowdale mining operations, around 100 kilometres south of Perth, until 2045.

"This agreement will enable government to assess the cumulative environmental impacts of Alcoa's local mining operations and provide strong protections for threatened species and ecological communities, while offering Alcoa long-term operational certainty," Mr Watt said in a statement…

Alcoa maintained it operated in accordance with the EPA Act but has acknowledged the clearing.

"We are committed to responsible operations and welcome this important step in transitioning our approvals to a contemporary assessment process that provides increased certainty for our operations and our people into the future," Alcoa CEO William Oplinger said in a statement.

Land clearing opposition

The Pennsylvania-based company has cleared around 28,000 hectares of the world's only jarrah forests in WA as part of its bauxite mining operation.

The company is required to rehabilitate the land it mines before returning it to the state, but in 2023 was found not to have met the government's rehabilitation completion criteria…

Alcoa has denied any wrongdoing, but if a breach is proven, it could make it illegal for Alcoa to continue mining during the EPA assessment.