QAL Environmental Support

Ramboll has been advising Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) on waste management and disposal sites across the refinery for almost a decade.

QAL operates one of the world’s largest alumina refineries, producing approximately 3.96 million tonnes of alumina per year. It is committed to achieving the highest standard of environmental performance.

Ramboll has provided extensive evaluation work, bringing value-add through remote sensing, risk assessment and groundwater modelling, technical advisory work, risk management, and data and digital management.

Combining traditional site investigation tools with advanced digital imagery and machine learning techniques from Ramboll’s Galago team, we assist QAL in risk-based assessment focused on sustainable land management. This has helped to develop predictive models with increased accuracy that aid in mitigation and management of the long-term operations.

Ramboll’s extensive work has also included advising on QAL’s environmental management plan (EMP) in collaboration with the regulator, the Queensland Department of Environment and Science (DES), to support QAL’s Environmental Authority issued by DES. This project is one of the first instances of the application of the new DES groundwater guidelines to such a complex site.