Lance Neita | Bauxite industry poised for new opportunities

The bauxite/alumina industry will mark its 75th anniversary next year. The history of industrial activity within the sector started in 1952 with Alcan’s first alumina shipment in January of that year and Reynolds’ first bauxite export on June 5.

In those pre-industry days the red Jamaican soil lay untouched save for its application as the daub in the ‘wattle and daub’ house construction or for medicinal purposes as a healing solution for bellyache and intestinal problems.

The soils were sidelined as useless acreage, and it wasn’t until 1938 that the Department of Agriculture commenced a detailed examination of the scientific content.

The investigation was not fruitless. When analysed, the deposits proved to contain bauxite ore to the extent of between 45 per cent and 51 per cent. This was a major breakthrough. Bauxite ore is the raw material for aluminium. The ore is mined, refined into alumina (aluminium oxide in the form of a fine white powder), before smelting into the metal aluminium.

The search whetted the interests of the international companies who were stepping up their aluminium production following the exhaustive use of supplies during World War 11. Aluminium Limited of Canada (later Alcan) gained exploratory rights from as early as 1943. Reynolds Metals followed in 1944, with Kaiser Bauxite securing significant acreage by 1950.

But even as local elders kept their medical secrets close to their chests, the government was gradually becoming more cognisant of the value to the country of the end product of the mining, shipping, and local processing of bauxite into the second stage alumina, as was being done by the two Alcan plants at Kirkvine and Ewarton.

‘RED GOLD’

The injection of income earned from this opening of the ‘red gold’ frontier was immediately seen in the increase in returns to the Jamaica National Income. The Jamaican economy was now shifting from an almost total and wasting plantation agricultural dependency to an alliance with industrial development.

Outside of the financial uptick, Jamaica was also seeing new employment opportunities, as well as the launch of educational incentives and scholarships, industrial training on a large scale, and the introduction of industrial safety programmes into the workplace.

By the 1970s Jamaica had emerged as a world leader in the export of the mineral. But today, we are bit players in an unceasing struggle for increased production and a bigger market share by all countries producing bauxite.

And the world’s focus is now on the upstream end of the cycle, where the consumption of the metal has increased by more than 100 per cent since year 2000, and aluminium is posted by marketing analysts as the metal with the highest growth in demand on the planet.

It stands to reason therefore that any discussion on bauxite in Jamaica today should include an appreciation and understanding of bauxite’s role as the prime source of raw material for the world’s most abundant metallic element.

In short, Jamaica can pivot on this fact as the importance, value and development of our natural, God-given resource is of considerable significance to our future economic growth.

Recent Gleaner editorials have been leading that charge as they turn the focus on aluminium trends and its impact on Jamaica’s bauxite/alumina industry.

The face of the industry has changed dramatically since 1952. Our live players today are the alumina plants Jamalco in Clarendon and Windalco in St Catherine, and the sole bauxite producer Discovery Bauxite in St. Ann.

A recent Gleaner editorial advised alumina output reached about 1.34 million tons in 2024 up from roughly 1.29 million tonnes in 2023. (Export earnings from the industry last year generated some US$600 million).

EXPORTS FALLEN

Bauxite exports remained in the 400,000-tonne range per quarter. While exports have fallen dramatically in comparison to the 1970’s, these figures are highly significant to Jamaica’s economy, as industry exports total roughly 40 per cent of the country’s domestic exports, maintaining the industry as one of our most important foreign exchange earners.

The editorial further cautioned that there are geopolitical demands creeping into the global dictates for the rules governing the bauxite and alumina trade, with market forces taking a potential back seat.

Rivalries between the East and the West, and the uncertainties of a Middle East war spread, are pumping up sabre rattling and territorial influence and energy preferences which, if our eyes are not open, can squeeze our market access and cramp our competitive advantages of location, political stability, highly skilled human resources, good working environment, and traditional preferred supplier status.

It is no secret that Discovery Bauxite has been earmarked for upgrade and production increase as its role as sole supplier of bauxite to Gramercy Alumina in Louisiana takes a turn for the better this year with announcements of a major investment in their bauxite/alumina relationship.

Jamalco is also riding high on announced investments to restore the plant to full production capacity.

Nevertheless we cannot rest on our laurels. Bauxite is too valuable a commodity to be sacrificed to the idea that investments upgrade alone can navigate the realities of new geopolitical dynamics, economic strategies, aluminium versatility, security, compliance, consistency, and environmental credentials.

We need to stop limiting our horizons and conversations in Jamaica to mining, processing and shipping, and step up our game with our presence in the primary marketplace strengthened by our experience, substantial reserves, and our geographic advantages.

We must also reopen the windows for diversification and seek opportunities that exists in abundance for rare earth extraction, and the potential mooted for the establishment of an aluminium manufacturing or recycling plant based in Jamaica.

Jamaicans would relish the recurrence of our bauxite in the form of aluminium patrimony.

Lance Neita is a public relations professional. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and lanceneita@hotmail.com.