Greater Emphasis to Be Placed on Industrial Minerals

Greater emphasis will be placed on Jamaica’s industrial minerals, says Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green.

Addressing the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS)/ European Union (EU)/United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) development minerals programme final conference at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday (October 18), the Minister said “a number of things will happen as we craft a new direction for our mining sector.”

Jamaica’s main mineral resources include bauxite, limestone, shale gypsum, hard volcanic rocks, pozzolan, as well as non-metallic minerals.

“We have to place a lot more emphasis on our industrial minerals. We have spent decades focusing a lot on bauxite, and bauxite has served us well. But we have tremendous opportunities in our industrial minerals sector, especially in relation to limestone. The fact that Jamaica has one of the best limestone qualities in the entire world, we have to provide more policy direction and support for the development of the sector,” Mr. Green said.

He argued that the extraction and management of minerals must be integrated into the country’s overall strategy for economic development.

“A lot of that growth has come from the bauxite industry and the rebound of JAMALCO. But we have not spoken enough of the tremendous growth we are seeing in our industrial mining sector, especially in the exports. I can tell you categorically, that our limestone export has grown by at least 100 per cent over last year,” Mr. Green noted.

The local minerals sector comprises activities related to the mining and quarrying industries.

These include the exploitation of materials deposited in the sea, as well as activities involving the exploration, use and processing of Jamaica’s mineral resources into value added products.

The mining and quarrying of clay, dolomite, gypsum, limestone, marble, sand and gravel, shale, silica sand, volcanic rocks and semi-precious minerals are major activities in the sector.

Materials derived from mineral processing and the manufacturing of mineral-based products include: construction blocks, ready mix concrete and tiles (floor and ceiling); mineral-based bonding agents: Portland cement, thin set, grout, dimension stones (counter tops, furniture, flooring, cladding material); lime, ground calcium carbonate (GCC), precipitated calcium carbonate (PCC); skid resistant aggregates and other special construction aggregates.