There are positive signs that local bauxite mining companies are moving to improve production capacity and expand mining, as the pricing for alumina, the raw material for aluminium, used in many products including car and electronics manufacture, improves on the world market.

The Government of Jamaica in October 2021 designated new mining areas in the Cockpit Country, giving public notice of the fact, and, meanwhile individual companies have been advertising for process operators or publicising new mining areas.

UC Rusal, which runs the Clarendon-based Jamalco, spent the month of October advertising for contractors to support its operations, while Jisco in Nain, St Elizabeth, announced that it has applied for an exclusive mining licence for new mining zones in Manchester covering 132 kilometers and which runs through seven named communities in the parish.

Valuation sources have put the global market for high purity alumina, produced from bauxite, at US$6.29 billion in 2021 and further predict that market size will triple by 2030. Focus-economics.com chronicles how alumina prices soared to the highest level in nearly two years on 7 October, due to supply disruptions.

The site relates: “ Alumina traded at US$478 per metric tonne on 7 October, which was 48.6 percent higher than on the same day in the prior month. Moreover, the price was 80.4 per cent higher than on the same day last year and was up 61.2 percent on a year-to-date basis.”

Prices for alumina have rallied in recent weeks, as August’s fire at the Jamalco alumina refinery in Clarendon, Jamaica, contributed to concerns about supply. On October 1, the company announced that full production was not expected before end of September 2022, which confirmed worries and sent prices surging. At the same time, the analyst observed, higher prices for alumina refining, plus higher energy costs globally, have also fed into higher prices.

Four mining operations in Jamaica are Jisco, St Elizabeth; Jamalco in Clarendon; Noranda Jamaica Bauxite partners in St Ann; and Windalco, in St Catherine.

Jiuquan Iron & Steel Company (Jisco) operates the 1.65 million tonne capacity alumina refinery— the largest in Jamaica which it acquired from Alpart. The plant can be further expanded to 2.0 million tonnes, the Jamaica Bauxite Institute states.

Located in Clarendon, Jamalco is a joint-venture between General Alumina Jamaica LLC (formerly known as Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica, LLC) and Clarendon Alumina Production Ltd. (a wholly owned Government company). The current design capacity of the Jamalco refinery is 1.416 million tonnes per annum.

Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners II, formerly St Ann Bauxite Jamaica Limited, is a partnership between Noranda Bauxite Limited (NBL), a Jamaican limited liability company, and the Government of Jamaica. A concession from the Government of Jamaica permits Noranda Bauxite Limited to mine bauxite in Jamaica through 2030. Bauxite mined at St Ann is shipped to the Gramercy refinery in Louisiana, where it is refined into alumina. The company has a production capacity of 5.4 million tonnes per annum.

West Indies Alumina Company (Windalco) is fully owned by Rusal. The entity comprises two alumina plants – Ewarton Works in St Catherine and Kirkvine Works in Manchester. Ewarton Work’s production capacity stands at 600,000 tonnes of alumina per annum. The Manchester plant has been closed for more than a decade.

Industry expert Dr Anthony Greenway, earlier in 2021 disclosed that with about seven per cent of the reserves of bauxite, Jamaica remains the 5th largest nation in terms of production of bauxite. He said that from review of the National Minerals Policy which is in draft form at the moment— it is predicting that at present rates of production, about 50 to 100 years more worth or amounts of bauxite.

The Jamaica Observer reached out to Roy Nicholson, Jamaica’s commissioner of mines, for an industry update over a two-week period in October, but no response was forthcoming despite repeated emails and telephone calls.