Pittsburgh-Based Alcoa Mines an Endangered Australian Forest at the Peril of Public Health and the Climate

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa—the world’s largest alumina producer—sources 70% of its global output from an area of Western Australia that includes the critically endangered Jarrah Forest. As a key material in electric vehicles, wind turbines, and solar panels, demand for aluminum is set to soar, and Alcoa casts itself as a leader in the quest to decarbonize.

But at what cost?

Since 1961, Alcoa has mined in Western Australia under an agreement brokered before current environmental regulations were in place.

Alcoa’s mining has scaled up massively since the firm landed in Western Australia, sources say, and it now clears around 2,000 acres of endangered forest each year. Mining bauxite entails ripping out eucalyptus trees—which support numbats, bandicoots, and other unusual species—to access the ore below. The company touts a reforestation program, but studies show it is ineffective. In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) declared the Jarrah “on the brink of collapse.”

The mining process also creates airborne particles and heavy metal waste that could contaminate the local water supply and threaten human health.

Now, Alcoa is seeking approval to further expand its Western Australia footprint—and resistance is mounting.

This project explores how the Pittsburgh firm is shaping an economy, culture, and ecosystem more than 10,000 miles away. Through reporting, photojournalism, and documents sourcing, we compile a series examining Alcoa’s impacts on climate, public health, and the global green economy. We’ll explain how business decisions made in Pittsburgh and aluminum consumption patterns in the U.S. are contributing to the Jarrah’s destruction and to climate change.