Adds share moves in paragraph 4, background on approval in paragraphs 6-7, details on impairment charge in paragraph 8

Feb 12 (Reuters) - Australian miner South32 S32.AX said on Wednesday that it had received environmental approval from the federal government to extend the operational life of its Worsley Alumina facility in Western Australia.

South32 owns 86% of Worsley Alumina, which began operations about 41 years ago and is one of the world's biggest alumina refineries. Japan Alumina Associates (Australia) owns 10% of the operation, while the remaining 4% is held by Sojitz Alumina.

Perth-headquartered South32 said that it will now move forward with developing new bauxite mining areas, which are projected to support production through at least fiscal year 2036.

Shares of the company fell as much as 1.5% to A$3.380, and on track for a third consecutive session of losses, if the current trend holds. The broader ASX200 benchmark .AXJO was up 0.3%, as of 0231 GMT.

In December 2024, the miner received approval from Western Australia for the extension of its Worsley mine.

South32 had initiated the environmental approval process with the Western Australian Environmental Protection Authority (WA EPA) in 2019, aiming to get the green light to mine more bauxite in the native forest south of Perth.

The environmental regulator approved the proposal last July, but it came with a range of conditions due to the sensitive nature of the forest area where mining will take place.

The miner then carried a value assessment of its project and recognised an impairment charge of $554 million on its Worsley Alumina mine, related to conditions prescribed by the WA EPA.

The miner produced 5.1 million tons of alumina in fiscal 2024, according to its annual report, and the commodity contributed to around 19% of the group's annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortisation.

(Reporting by Rajasik Mukherjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

((Rajasik.Mukherjee@thomsonreuters.com;))