Alcoa Discovery Tour, Perth Summer 2013

With youths in tow, I decided that our holidays should include an educational element.  Following some research, I found out that industrial giant Alcoa offers an educational tour at two of its facilities in Western Australia.  Alcoa is involved in bauxite mining.  Bauxite is the key ingredient for the production of aluminium.  Taking into consideration distance, I decided on the tour conducted at Pinjarra - about 20 km from Mandurah.

Departing from Joondalup at 8 am, we barely made it for the tour after making a wrong turn just before the exit to Pinjarra.  We arrived at 9.30 am and found that the ferry picking other visitors from Mandurah had just arrived.  The Alcoa Discovery Centre is located together with the Pinjarra Heritage Railway Station. 

After registration, our guide Rhonda brought us for a tour of the refinery plant, north of Pinjarra.  Unfortunately, photography at the plant was not allowed.  The scale of the refinery is large and it was surprising that the mined bauxite is transported down from the mining area at the top of the Darling Range by a system of conveyor belts. 

Following the refinery tour, we proceeded to observe the mining operations at Huntly mine.  The trip to Huntly took about 30 minutes.  The mining were super-sized.  The dump trucks alone was about 1.2 times the height of our minibus.

Besides mining, Alcoa is also huge in ensuring that its mining operations has minimal impact on the local eco-system.  This is important as the Darling Ranges is considered a key water catchment for the Peel region.

After the mining tour, we proceeded a lookout point where we viewed the rehabilitated Jarrah forest under by Alcoa.  The tour ended at 1 pm.