The recent Restoration Ecology Journal has focused on Alcoa’s environmental research and management programs.
The company was invited to author a series of papers for a special edition of the 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.
Alcoa’s Australia-Asia operations vice president Raphael Costa said the material in the journal was the result of 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,” he said.
“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 Forest 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,” Costa said.
Alcoa’s WA mining group has published over 120 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and over 100 printed conference papers.
Alcoa
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