Mining giant Alcoa has disclosed the departure this month of its Australian boss while confirming its global chief executive has been in Perth meeting with Premier Mark McGowan.
Mining giant Alcoa has disclosed the departure this month of its Australian boss while confirming its global chief executive has been in Perth meeting with Premier Mark McGowan.
Responding to inquiries from Business News, the company said Michael Gollschewski elected to leave the company this month.
He had been president of Alcoa of Australia since 2019.
The company is yet to name a replacement.
Alcoa also confirmed Pittsburgh-based president and chief executive Roy Harvey was recently in Perth, the first time he has visited since 2019 due to COVID restrictions.
The company said he came to WA to visit operations and meet with employees in person and took the opportunity to meet with the Premier to discuss a variety of topics.
WA is home to some of Alcoa's major assets, with the American company in the midst of seeking environmental approval to expand its operations in WA.
It wants to expand its Huntly bauxite mine, increase production from its Pinjarra alumina refinery and, most controversially, gain approval to export bauxite.
That is a major departure from its traditional business model, with the company highlighting its big investment in value-added processing of raw materials extracted from the jarrah forests in the Darling Range.
Alcoa mines about 27 million tonnes per year of bauxite from Huntly, near Dwellingup.
It mines a further 7.5mtpa at its Willowdale mine near Jarrahdale.
The company wants to increase the rate of mining at Huntly to supply up to 2.5 Mtpa of bauxite for export.
It also plans to transition the Huntly mine to the proposed Myara North area, near Jarrahdale, and the Holyoake area, near Dwellingup.
The plan to export unprocessed bauxite follows a trial in 2021.
The company said bauxite exports “improves our productivity and provides additional revenue that is important for the viability of our business”.
It also said less than a quarter of the Myara North and Holyoake mine and transport study areas would be cleared under its proposal.
Alcoa is also seeking approval to increase production at its Pinjarra refinery.
It currently produces about 4.7 mtpa of alumina and has approval to produce up to 5 mtpa.
The company wants approval to produce up to 5.25 mtpa, with the increase coming from efficiency and operational improvements rather than a major refinery upgrade.
In addition, it wants new environmental approvals to support bauxite supply to its Kwinana alumina refinery.
This change would increase the total approved clearing from 6,621 hectares to 9,273 hectares.
Historically, mining to support the Kwinana refinery has been authorised under Alcoa’s State Agreement and associated clearing has been authorised through a separate statutory process.
Alcoa said the proposed change would consolidate all the mining activities for Huntly into one environmental approval framework and increase transparency about its future mine plans.
The company has made concerted efforts to rehabilitate mined land but nonetheless attracts criticism from environmental groups.
