Ecologists are alarmed by plans to clear a significant area of endangered WA banksia woodlands to make way for two mineral sands projects.

Image Resources has environmental approval to clear 206.4 hectares of banksia woodlands for its Atlas mining project at Nambung, about 170 kilometres north of Perth.

Curtin University botanist Kingsley Dixon said giving up the high-quality habitat, a nationally-listed threatened ecological community used by endangered black cockatoo species for food, would be a devastating biodiversity loss.

It comes amid major concerns about a food shortage for black cockatoos after a hot, dry summer led to a failed season of seeding.

It is the biggest area of banksia woodlands approved for clearing in Western Australia since it became a threatened ecological community in 2016.

Clearing push

Image Resources uses shallow surface mining techniques that process millions of tonnes of sand to extract minerals such as zircon and titanium dioxide for international export.

It plans to have a further 950 hectares of bush, estimated to be 80 to 90 per cent banksia woodlands, cleared about 60km from the Nambung site for its $194 million Bidaminna project.

The majority of land for both projects is owned by the WA government, with Bidaminna's project area including a portion of the historic North West Stock Route.

The Bidaminna site, next to the Moore River National Park, was earmarked for a conservation reserve before the plan was scrapped by the WA Labor government two years ago.

Professor Dixon said the biodiversity and complexity of the remnant sites where Image wanted to mine was extraordinary and world-class.

"The [Atlas] approval flies in the face of all the advice the company has received, the government has received, that shows the area to be environmentally sensitive, unique, and that we cannot restore, offset, make nature positive the destruction of that amount of this threatened ecological community," he said.

Research published in the Australian Journal of Botany suggests 50 to 60 per cent of the original banksia woodlands, which once stretched from Cape Naturaliste to Jurien Bay, have been cleared since colonisation.

To prevent further loss and meet state and federal requirements, Image Resources has had to buy private properties with similar woodland values as an offset for its clearing and also replant what they removed.

But Professor Dixon, who has worked in banksia woodland restoration for 30 years, said the technology to fully reinstate the ecological communities was unlikely to exist within the next 50 years.

"So it's a net loss for nature, and for the people of Western Australia to lose this threatened ecological community," he said. 

He said Western Australia must refuse mining projects in threatened ecological areas.

"We've said it occasionally, but we need to say it more."

Concerns acknowledged

The Shire of Gingin was instructed by its council earlier this year to object to the Bidaminna mining project because of its proximity to the Moore River and because it "offers no benefit to our community at large". 

The council wrote to the Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety outlining its objection but said it did not have time to make a formal appeal against the project.

Image Resources had operated an open-cut mineral sands mine on a former farming property at Boonanarring since 2018, but exhausted reserves there last year.

The company's managing director, Patrick Mutz, acknowledged public concern about clearing banksia woodland for its new ventures.

"But I rest on the confidence about the permitting process that is in play for mining operations in areas like this and the rigour of having to ensure that we, in some way at the end of the day, leave the whole area better than when we started."

Image Resources acknowledged the complexity of rehabilitation in its environmental application for Atlas, saying it was likely to take several decades before the woodland values were close to pre-mining levels and that "success cannot be guaranteed". 

Jobs and royalties for WA

WA Environmental Protection Authority (EPA) deputy chair Lee McIntosh said the watchdog had recommended conditions on the Atlas project that would reduce and offset impacts to the woodlands.

She said the EPA also considered the cumulative impact of the project on remaining banksia woodlands.

"The EPA report also identified that it was key for proponents to consider the cumulative impacts of future mineral sands proposals and other proposals in the area," Ms McIntosh said.

Mr Mutz said the company was well aware of how difficult banksia woodland was to restore and would support research into ways to overcome problems before and during the restoration process.

He said the Boonanarring project provided "roughly 50 per cent of the local jobs to the area" and he expected a similar rate for the Atlas and Bidaminna projects.

Mr Mutz said the projects would also lead to a "few more royalties" for the state.

Mineral sands, which are the seventh largest commodity for resource royalties in WA, were expected to raise $56 million for the state budget this financial year.

Mr Mutz said securing environmental approvals for the future Bidaminna project would be even more challenging than it was for Atlas.

"We're aware of that and we accept that as part of the challenges," Mr Mutz said.

"There has to be the normal balance struck between the environmental regulations and the concerns in these areas and mining.

"So if we are able to find an application that can meet that balance then I suspect we will be successful in our application and if not I suspect we won't be successful."