South32 boss welcomes scrutiny on Worsley expansion

South32 boss Graham Kerr says he welcomes scrutiny of the company’s plans to expand its Worsley alumina operation because it offers an opportunity to showcase its forest rehabilitation work.

The Perth-based company’s latest expansion proposal involves the clearing of 4399 hectares of jarrah forest as part of an expansion of its existing Boddington mine. The proposal will extend the existing 13-year mine life for another 15 years.

The Environmental Protection Authority this month extended an eight-week public submission period by two weeks to allow interested parties to read and digest the nearly 4700 pages of documents associated with the proposal.

The West Australian understands the EPA had already received about 180 public submissions on the proposed expansion at the end of the initial eight-week consultation period.

Speaking after South32 posted a 432 per cent jump in annual profit to a record $US489 million, Mr Kerr said the company was “very conscious” that it mined in one of the most bio-diverse places in the world, which is what made rehabilitation so important.

He said he welcomed the commentary around the company’s extension proposal for Worsley because it allowed for dialogue with people about the work South32 did to rehabilitate the land it mined.

Mr Kerr said South32 had rehabilitated more than 3200ha of land post-mining since 1984, which showed how well the natural vegetation had recovered.

He said the proposed clearing for the Worsley expansion project represented about 0.4 per cent of the remaining vegetation of the Northern Jarrah Forest and noted the company would consciously avoid areas of high environmental value.

But WA Conservation Council executive director Maggie Wood said there was no argument about how damaging South32’s Worsley extension proposal would be to native forests.

“Even South32 has acknowledged the plan would have damaging effects on the Hotham River, use 900 million litres of water per year and create 270 million tonnes greenhouse gas emissions over the lifetime of the proposal,” she said.

Ms Wood noted the Northern Jarrah Forest had been identified as an ecosystem most at risk of climate collapse in the latest report by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

“That is a warning which should not, and cannot, be ignored,” she said.

Mr Kerr also pointed to the strong contribution Worsley made to the economies of the South West and argued aluminium would play an important role in the decarbonisation of the globe.

The BHP spin-out on Thursday declared a final fully franked dividend of US14¢ per share along with a special dividend of US3¢.

That compares with a final dividend of US3.5¢ and a special dividend of US2¢ the previous year.

Mr Kerr said the dividends announced on Thursday took annual shareholder returns to a record $US1.3b in respect of the 2022 financial year.

“The board has also resolved to further expand our capital management program by $US156m to $US2.3b, leaving $US250m to be returned to shareholders by September 1 next year,” he said.

Thursday’s annual results come just two days after the company announced it would abandon a proposed $US700m expansion of its Illawarra metallurgical coal operations in New South Wales.

South32 shares closed up 4¢ to $4.27.