Alcoa Mine Clearing to Supply Scarce Western Australia’s Hardwood Timber

‘The sawmills, which are reliant on the larger diameter logs, are really looking to that mine site clearing operation to feed their mills’

Machinery sits in front of a regrown plantation forest waiting to be cleared for new housing development in Albany, Western Australia, on Nov. 3, 2023. Susan Mortimer/The Epoch Times

The survival of Western Australia’s ailing hardwood timber industry could hinge on an environmental assessment of alumina giant Alcoa and its controversial plan to clear parts of a state forest.

In an unusual twist, the industry is banking on logs from the US-listed company’s mine site expansion in the state’s southwest - which the environmental regulator is examining - after the state banned commercial logging of native hardwood species.