MINISTER of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining Floyd Green says the Government is optimistic about the reopening of bauxite-alumina refinery Jiuquan Iron and Steel (JISCO/Alpart) in Nain, St Elizabeth, and is looking forward to JISCO’s submission of its plans to resume production.

Operations at the refinery were suspended since 2019 to facilitate the plant’s modernisation and expansion.

“The reopening of Alpart still remains a priority for this Government. We do know the significant impact of Alpart, especially in relation to parts of St Elizabeth and Manchester but, more importantly, the national economy overall needs to see that sort of input from Alpart. Alpart is now owned by JISCO and it is the country’s only high temperature aluminum refinery uniquely capable of processing lower-grade bauxite found in some areas of Jamaica,” he said.

Green, who was speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House on Wednesday, said he met with a high-level team from the Ganzhou Province and from JISCO, who visited the ministry last week as a part of their feasibility study and plan for the reopening of Alpart.

“We would have had a very open, frank meeting about the possibilities. Clearly, they are going through a process, looking at the costs and the feasibility of it. But we did come away from that meeting feeling very hopeful. There are two more visits scheduled for the end of this month and also for June. And the team from JISCO has indicated that in the last quarter of this year they will submit to us their plan for reopening and as such we look forward [to that],” he said.

In June last year, the agriculture ministry had reported that Green had convened a meeting with JISCO/Alpart to discuss the company’s plans for the reopening and resumption of plant operations.

The ministry said at the time that the discussions were centred on the current state of the plant; the modification process which started in 2019 but had stalled; the feasibility of continued mining operations and a prospective timeframe for resumption.

On Wednesday, Green said he also met last week with a team from bauxite mining and alumina refinery Jamalco.

“Jamalco is going through some management changes. All of this is towards prioritising increasing production numbers. We would have discussed issues regarding land reclamation, and land titling, a priority of this Government to treat with some of the issues that have really not gotten the sort of attention that it needed over the years,” said Green. “We would have gotten a clear commitment from the new manager of Jamalco and also from Century [Aluminium] that they will prioritise land reclamation and they will prioritise land titling,” he said.

The mining minister said he has asked state minister in his ministry Franklin Witter to pay keen attention to those areas.

Jamalco is a joint venture between Century Aluminum (55 per cent interest) and Clarendon Alumina Production Limited, which has a 45 per cent interest.