JAMAICA during the period of Spanish occupation was largely neglected because gold-hungry Iberians didn’t find much of the precious metal on the island.

Yet, it is the dream of one man, Robert Stewart, to find and extract gold and other metals such as copper, in quantities, he believes, will make commercial sense, and he his putting his money where his mouth is, through a company called Geophysx Jamaica Limited.

“I formed the company in 2017, but we actually really got busy working on the ground [at] the beginning of 2018,” Stewart said as he outlined the beginnings of Geophysx.

For the first three years of the company’s life, Stewart said the time was spent gathering a total of 40,000 samples from soils, rocks and even stream beds across the length and breadth of Jamaica, in areas it was permitted to explore, for testing to ascertain which metals or minerals are present in them. The samples were sent to Canada where they were assessed and tested.

“And we got a report that there were 62 elements [found in the samples], so we were able to determine the layout of the island in terms of geochemistry and map it,” Stewart added.

The man, a self-described “techie” now pursuing gold and copper mining in Jamaica through Geophysx — the latest in a list of companies to have done so which includes BHP, Orvana Minerals, OzMinerals, and AusJam Mining in more recent memory — only decided to go into exploration after 30 years working in various positions in his father’s Sandals Resorts — a Caribbean-based all-inclusive luxury hotel group — “to try something new.”

“And one of the things on my mind, was [that] when I was about 9 or 10, I was being driven around in the hills with my family, and we came across a landslide up there — we had had a tropical storm the week before — and the landslide had covered part of the road, and the road was covered in pyrite — fool’s gold. But this was silvery pyrite, not a gold-looking pyrite. But as a kid, you think you find something special. So I collected some of the rocks, and that just sat in the back of my mind, from when I was a kid. And so when I had the free time, I started wondering, and that’s when I decided to look and see if a proper programme had been done in exploring the island [for gold]. And when I realised a proper programme really had not yet been done, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to invest in trying to find out whether we really had that potential here,” he reflected.

Holding some of the rock samples in hand, Stewart showed strains of copper which he said “was very motivating” to his search, especially when found in tandem with iron, because it would point to the presence of gold.

“We ended up buying a helicopter and with that we did about 13,000 line kilometres of this electromagnetic survey ball called Mobile MT, which is Mobile Magnetotellurics. It’s a very new technology. It lets you see the conductivity and structure under the surface up to 1.2 kilometres deep…And by mapping those differences and mapping that structure with the geochemistry, we were able to present to some of the larger exploration companies out there a possible partnership [to explore for gold].” he said.

So far, Stewart said he has spent about US$20 million ($3.1 billion) on his exploration efforts. The sample tests were promising enough to draw the attention of Barrick Gold Corporation, a Canadian-based company, which was the world’s second largest gold mining company before Newmont acquired Goldcorp in 2019, which signed a deal with Geophysx “relatively quickly” after themselves were impressed with the findings, Stewart said, adding that it has been nearly 40 years since a junior explorer has come out of nowhere, explored an area and attract one of the “big boys” in a short period of time.

“It’s a big deal because, you know, there are so many companies worldwide pitching a project or two here and there. And so many very good projects. So when you get a major player interested and you’re able to show them that you have multiple projects that increases the odds of their success should they come in and partner with you, it’s a unique situation.”

That deal was announced in May 2024 with Stewart noting that Barrick, due to its status in the mining world, was targeted to partner on the project.

“Because to me, if we were going to start something new, a new industry, we have to land that first project as first world, top tier, with all of the environmental considerations and not a fly-by-night company that’s just going to come in and ‘bandooloo’ a mine and pollute the place. We had to show that this is absolutely the best foot forward for this new industry,” he pointed out.

He said the prospects go beyond what was already found in areas like Pennants in Clarendon where a gold mine operated up to 2004. Reports at the time of that mine’s closure suggested it yielded 12,000 ounces of gold, with geologists estimating that only another 3,000 to 4,000 ounces remained to be extracted.

“But we felt there was much greater potential. And just in the last six months, the work that we’ve done with our partner Barrick has given us more confidence that we have great potential for [gold mining] to actually happen here in the island.”

He said the potential is scattered across various parishes though he declined to be more specific.

“For Barrick, some projects might be 30 per cent complete, some are more complete. But I fully expect that we will be doing further work in the new year and defining some of these projects.”

That would include assessing each project to determine which one should be drill tested. Stewart said he is hoping that moving to the drill testing phase for the elements that showed up in the sample tests will begin sometime in mid-2025.

“Once we have an official discovery hole — an official discovery hole means we know that we actually hit what we expected as part of that potential ore body — the next step would be resourcing, which is where you’re going to do multiple drill holes to define the area and the size of that potential deposit, and kind of give a number value on what is contained within it. And that will take a year or two at least.”

But even giving that two-year timeline to hit anything, Stewart was cautious to point out that he will not be “short circuiting” any of the steps.

Of the 62 elements already identified in the rock samples tested so far, not all are in commercial quantities.

“Apart from the base or precious metals like silver, gold and copper, there are other elements that sort of represents a sign that the others should be there because they wouldn’t be there unless there was a hydrothermal event. Those metals that are like molybdenum, which is a pathfinder for activity that could create deposits. And in fact, we have discovered a rare earth deposit here as well,” he added.

Jamaica has long known that rare earth elements that are used in magnets, electronics, renewable energy, aerospace and so on, are present in bauxite and has even successfully tested the red mud left over after processing bauxite for alumina. That test was carried out by the Japanese when it was shut off from accessing rare earth elements from China just over a decade ago.

Now, Stewart says, in addition to looking at red muds, his exploration team has also found an in-situ deposit where the rare earths are substantially higher than any of the bauxite that would have been mined in the island. He said that deposit was found in St Elizabeth, and is present in quantities that warrant further development, especially given that one country, China, controls much of the rare earth used in production in various industries.

“So with rare earths, everybody now realises they’re 20, 30 years behind, not only in production, not only in getting to the sources, but in intellectual property, the knowledge of how to do it. And the world is playing catch up, but it’s going to take a commitment from governments to stay the course, not just private companies, because shareholders are not going to appreciate throwing money after something that tomorrow could change. And they will lose money on the investment.”

He said he has an interest in developing the rare earth and is currently talking to potential partners about developing that project. For now, apart from Barrick Gold, Geophysx has a partnership with on a gold project with C3 Metals.

Another element found in large quantities, he said, is iron. Jamaica’s bauxite has iron which can vary from 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the deposit, but due to the high energy requirement to smelt it and its price, producing this metal may not be pursued at this time.

“It’s really the other stuff we are after. We are just moving forward. But we are on a good track. We are bringing very serious players with very serious expertise to Jamaica to partner on these projects. Which is the best way to keep the momentum going forward.”