Quinn Glabicki | PublicSource

Two white men in cowboy hats look out over a forest scarred by large cleared, mined areas.

Will Australia revisit the deal that led a Pittsburgh firm to depend on the ore beneath its trees?

Pittsburgh’s Alcoa has slowly spun its global production web around the bauxite ore in Australia, aided by a special political agreement. As the environmental and health tolls grow, regulators, scientists and citizens call for change.

A massive industrial facility surrounded by tall piles of red dirt, with trees in the background.

Environment & Energy

Alcoa’s Australian refineries drove flight from two towns, and its waste threatens a third

Quinn Glabicki | PublicSource

Pittsburgh-based Alcoa has mined and refined bauxite in Western Australia since 1963. The company owns three sprawling industrial facilities along the southwestern coast.

An old Australian Aboriginal man with long white hair sits on logs at the edge of a forest next to a strip mined landscape.

Environment & Energy

How Pittsburgh’s Alcoa is undermining a rare forest to fuel its global aluminum empire

Jamie Wiggan | PublicSource

A one-of-a-kind ecosystem lies above the bauxite Alcoa says it needs for its future. The company’s request to expand mining in Australia is drawing objections from scientists and the land’s original inhabitants.