Alcoa clearing exemption to 2045: planning implications for bauxite mine engineers
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Alcoa of Australia has secured a clearing exemption from the Western Australian Government while it undertakes a strategic assessment of its existing and potential bauxite mining areas in the northern Jarrah Forest through to 2045. The exemption allows continued vegetation clearing under the Environmental Protection (Clearing of Native Vegetation) Regulations 2004 while Alcoa prepares a whole-of-operations environmental impact assessment under the WA Environmental Protection Act. For geotechnical and mine planners, the review timeframe to 2045 signals long-horizon pit sequencing, haul road, and residue storage planning under tighter cumulative biodiversity and water catchment constraints.
Technical Brief
- For other long-life mining operations, similar strategic assessments can reshape mine layout and closure concepts.
Our Take
A strategic assessment horizon out to 2045 is unusually long in our Mining–Projects coverage and signals that Alcoa of Australia is likely trying to lock in regulatory certainty for multiple mine sequences rather than a single pit or expansion.
For Australia-based operators in our database, similar long-dated land-clearing or permitting frameworks often become the reference case in later negotiations with state regulators, so this exemption could influence how other bauxite and bulk-commodity projects frame their own approvals.
With no specific commodity flagged here but a very long planning window, practitioners should expect cumulative impact and progressive rehabilitation requirements to be central, as regulators in Australia increasingly scrutinise whole-of-lease footprints over multi-decade timeframes rather than project-by-project approvals.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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