GEOPHYSX Jamaica principal Robert “Bobby” Stewart was unable to mask the pride in his voice yesterday as he talked about the core sampling drill the company is using in its continued exploration for minerals across the island.

“We’ve undertaken this with some really first-world philosophies, in terms of how we approach each of the areas we work in, how we work with people in each area, as well as the actual tools, equipment, and techniques we use. They are very, very first world, so they’re totally non-invasive,” Stewart told the Jamaica Observer hours after a contracted Jamaica Defence Force helicopter flew the drill from a playfield near Castleton, St Mary, to the Geophysx worksite high in the mountains above.

“This programme of flying the drill in allows us to do the work without cutting down forests to construct roads,” he explained, pointing out that the Geophysx approach compares favourably to that of other companies that would create harm to the environment to drive the equipment in.

“We prefer to drop it on the hill, and each week we’d have to bring in supplies by helicopter, but we don’t end up chopping up the bush and building roads, because to us, we prefer to work across the island in a very, very non-impactful way, and it allows us to see which areas are more promising, which areas the residents are more looking for development, so that [it] can be done in partnership with the local communities,” said Stewart.

“In the past, other exploration companies would tend to use more invasive techniques — digging up the ground, trenching, and things like that; those are things that we don’t do,” he said.

The drill, Stewart explained, can retrieve rock samples from as far as a kilometre (over 3,200 feet) below the earth’s surface through a hole that’s four inches wide.

“Basically, that allows us to pick up the drill and remediate the site and nobody would ever know that we had worked on samples there,” he said.

“So, for example, we had a sampling site we set up with the sampling drill in Constitution Hill in May, and after we completed we helped the residents turn it into farm land; it was totally remediated, we got certificates from NEPA [National Environment and Planning Agency]. That was our first site,” Stewart said.

Geophysx Jamaica is a privately held and funded mineral exploration company, operationally active in the island since 2017. Stewart explained that since then the company has been doing an overall evaluation of the mineralogy and geochemistry of the island.

“Over the last couple of years we’ve done about 30,000 geochemical analyses across most of the island to build a picture of most of the island. We’re working on some new geological maps to really understand Jamaica, because while some work has been done, nobody has ever done this big and extensive campaign to learn about the island,” Stewart told the Observer.

“The ultimate outcome is to determine where in Jamaica has the best prospects for minerals. Most mining is different to bauxite mining in Jamaica. Bauxite mining, obviously, covers hundreds of square kilometres and it can be disruptive, because you have a lot of people living over those areas… What we’re looking for is basically small, high-grade potential deposits that are typically less than 100 or 200 metres across, and they can actually be extracted locally, with far less disturbance to the environment and to local communities but with an ability to generate new industries and new jobs, because, let’s face it, bauxite as a resource will not last forever, and Jamaica was never fully explored,” he said.

Stewart argued that since gold was discovered in California, just over 170 years ago, “all of the small-scale mines in Jamaica had shut down and there has been no major work done on this scale since then”.

He said if his company finds potential deposits of the kind for which they are searching, it will hold the rights to explore further and can seek international partners who they would consider good operators.

“So this puts a local company in charge of being able to make these agreements and choose good partners, who are going to be operating on a sustainable basis,” he said.

“It’s basically a new industry, and we’re operating with a number of overseas scientists who have, combined, approximately 350 years of experience,” he said, pointing out that the team comprises geophysicists, geologists, explorationists, and geochemists.

“They have helped us build the programme over the years and we’re operating at standards that are higher than most other parts of the world,” Stewart added.

Geophysx Jamaica has applied for and received exclusive permits to explore areas in Clarendon, Portland, St Andrew, St Catherine, St Mary, and St Thomas.