Executive director of the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) Parris Lyew-Ayee says the Government has no plans to allow bauxite mining in the Cockpit Country, at least not for another 20 years, and blasted environmentalists for acting hastily by going public with a campaign against mining in the area regarded as a bio-diversity hot spot and one of the world’s last natural treasures.

“I would like to categorically state that there are no plans now or in the future to mine bauxite in the Cockpit Country,” Lyew-Ayee said in a statement. “Unfortunately, no one took the time out to ask us this simple question before embarking on a media campaign which has caused many persons unnecessary anxiety.”

Lyew-Ayee did not say whether special exclusive prospecting licences, applied for by Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica and Clarendon Alumina Production, had been granted. Both firms received licences in May 2004 allowing them to search for bauxite deposits in Trelawny and St Ann.

A large chunk of the Cockpit Country is in the parish of Trelawny and Lyew-Ayee said the parish would be protected from the heavy equipment of the miners.

He denied that bauxite exploration work in Trelawny being proposed by Jamalco, under a special exclusive prospecting licence, would involve the building of roads and destruction of the environment. The survey work, he said, would use modern technologies which do not require the clearing of survey lines, as in the past.

Lyew-Ayee explained that two special mining leases (SMLs) granted to Alcoa to carry out exploration for bauxite in the heart of the Cockpit Country were concluded without harmful impact on the environment.

Those SMLs, he said, gave permission to continue the mining phase after exploration and with a 25-year tenure.

“This is unlike the special exclusive prospecting licence now being proposed for Jamalco in Trelawny, which is only for a one or two-year period with no commitment or permission to automatically proceed to mining,” Lyew-Ayee said.

“Another important point is that there are no imminent plans to begin mining in Trelawny,” he said. “If the results of this exploration are favourable, the earliest time foreseen for any mining there is almost 20 years from now.”

But environmentalists are disputing Lyew-Ayee’s claim. According to Danielle Andrade, legal director at the Jamaica Environment Trust, (JET) and legal advisor for the Cockpit Country Stakeholders Group (CCSG), several letters have been sent out to the JBI, the commissioner of mines, the minister of agriculture, with copies to the National Environment and Planning Agency and the Ministry of Local Government and the Environment.

“We have received only one response from the commissioner of mines, referring us to JBI. Even our October 24 Access to Information request for the area, which has already undergone prospecting by Alcoa, has gone unanswered,” Andrade said.

The issue of mining in the Cockpit Country has worried environmentalists and some of the 73,000 residents of the land which spans 5,000 acres and stretches across three parishes.

Hugh Dixon, who heads the Southern Trelawny Environmental Association, said Lyew-Ayee was attempting to hoodwink the Jamaican people.

“It is an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of the people,” Dixon said.

Wildlife biologist Dr Susan Koenig of the Windsor Research Centre in Trelawny agreed that mining for ore in the region was a

no no.

“Mining in the Cockpit Country would irreparably damage the habitat of all species, most notably sensitive micro-habitats,” she said. “The associated forest fragmentation will also open the door for harmful non-native invasive species. The Cockpit Country is the sanctuary for Jamaica’s plants and animals at the central karst plateau.”

Environmentalists also claim that exploration and mining for bauxite in the Cockpit Country will contaminate major rivers, including the Martha Brae, Golden River and Black River which supplies water to the North Coast as well as western and southern Jamaica.

But Lyew-Ayee claimed that any exploration conducted will have no effect on the water table.

“In fact, this exploration work will yield another dimension of the scientific database for better understanding the Cockpit Country,” he said. “In short, the exploration work will not have any negative impact on the area or the groundwater.”

All bauxite lands and mining leases were reclaimed by the Michael Manley-led People’s National Party Government during a rationalisation programme in 1974.

After further exploration work was carried out by the JBI and Alcan in the 1990s as part of a feasibility study to build a refinery in Trelawny, Lyew-Ayee said the Government took a decision to ban the mining or processing of bauxite in the area called the National Park.

But despite Lyew-Ayee’s statements, the CCSG is demanding that the Government declare the Cockpit Country a no-mining zone.

“The Government must come out and say no mining will be done in the area,” head of JET, Diana McCaulay said. “If that is done, then the area can be proposed as a world heritage site to the

United Nations.”

Despite the recommendations of leading environmentalists, the Cockpit Country has remained off a tentative list of sites which have been proposed to be made into world heritage sites.

The Blue and John Crow Mountains, along with Seville in St Ann are the sites proposed to the United Nations for consideration as world heritage sites.