Darling Range (Willowdale) Bauxite Mine Feasibility Study: $122M NPV Over a 9-Year Mine Life
Alcoa Corporation's Darling Range (Willowdale) Bauxite Mine in Western Australia, Australia has a Feasibility Study outlining an after-tax NPV of $122M. The proposed mine plan runs 9 years.
Alcoa Corporation's Darling Range (Willowdale) Bauxite Mine has reported Feasibility Study results for the bauxite project in Western Australia, Australia. The study headlines an after-tax net present value of $122M at a 12% discount rate. It reflects Alcoa Corporation's (AA) latest disclosed economics for the asset.
Economics. The after-tax NPV is $122M using a 12% discount rate. Economics are based on Average LOM Price Assumption $21.46 per tonne (bauxite).
Production and mine plan. The project envisions an open-pit operation. Life of mine is 9 years. Average head grade is Product: average AL grade of 33%.
Resources and ownership. The company holds a 60% interest in the project.
These figures are extracted from Alcoa Corporation's technical disclosures and reflect the most recent Feasibility Study on file. Compare this project against other developers and producers in our project economics database, and always verify the numbers against the original technical report before making any investment decision.
Our Analysis
- NPV after-tax
- $122M
higher than 15% of 553 projects we track
- Mine life
- 9yrs
- Study price assumption
- Average LOM Price Assumption $21.46 per tonne (bauxite)
This is a feasibility-stage bauxite operation in Western Australia, in production, with a nine-year mine life. Against the 553 projects we track across all commodities, its $122M after-tax NPV ranks above only 15% of them. That is the fact that should frame everything else. A completed feasibility study deserves more weight than a scoping exercise: it is the build-ready estimate, and these numbers carry the confidence that comes with that. But confidence in the estimate is not the same as scale in the outcome, and on scale this sits in the bottom sixth of the peer set.
The reason the ranking matters less than it might is the company. At a US$11.14B market cap, this is a large-cap with 18 projects in our coverage, and the NPV is well below that market cap on a rough currency-adjusted basis. For an asset of this size, the gap is not a signal of mispricing so much as a signal of materiality: a project this small against a portfolio this large simply does not move the equity, whichever way it goes. That cuts both ways. It means limited downside if the study disappoints, and limited re-rating if it delivers.
Western Australia is about as favourable a bauxite jurisdiction as exists, which is why the feasibility numbers can be read largely at face value rather than discounted for permitting or sovereign risk. The constraint that matters is the study's own price assumption: $21.46 per tonne averaged over the life of mine. With a nine-year life and a modest NPV, the returns rest heavily on that single input holding, and there is little in the scale of the asset to absorb a sustained shortfall against it. The question that decides this project is whether that long-run bauxite price is durable.
Our take, benchmarked against the project economics in the Mining Stocks database. Figures are estimates drawn from company technical reports — not investment advice; always verify against the source filing.
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