MINING FREE-FOR-ALL

Seventy-five years after bauxite mining began in Jamaica, the industry that once spurred economic growth now stands at a crossroads, with its legacy marred by environmental degradation and economic loss. Jamaica, long celebrated as one of the world’s leading producers of bauxite, now faces fierce criticism, particularly from Manchester communities and political representatives, who argue that the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI), the body responsible for regulating the industry, has been failing in its duties. Many believe that the JBI has allowed mining companies to exploit the country’s resources without adequate compensation or responsibility for the resulting damage.

Since February, residents of several communities in Manchester have been speaking with The Sunday Gleaner, sharing stories of environmental catastrophe and loss of livelihoods. These communities, once rich in agricultural land for food, livestock, and fruit production, have been devastated by climate extremes, including severe droughts and flash floods.

Mining operations have impacted three of the four political constituencies in Manchester. Only Peter Bunting, who is seeking to become the representative in the Southern constituency, and Mikael Phillips (MP) in the North Western region, were willing to speak with The Sunday Gleaner on the issue. Both gave vivid pictures of the post-mining devastation by Jamalco (Alcan), Windalco (Alcoa) and Alpart/UC Rusal, with thousands more acres slated to be mined.

Bunting did not hold back, calling out mining companies for their exploitative practices and accusing the JBI of neglecting its regulatory duties and allowing an unchecked mining free-for-all.

Vulture capitalists

“These people are vulture capitalists. They come not to invest for 50 years. They come to pick whatever remaining flesh is left on the carcass or the skeleton of the parish. They don’t invest anything and all the risk is put on Jamaica. Jamaicans do the mining, haulage and loading. They have Jamaicans who do the contract work, even down to the pickup the Russians drive, these are leased pickups. When they’re ready to go, they just pick up their briefcase and go to the airport,” said Bunting, a former Cabinet minister and Manchester Central representative.

“The liabilities for everything is left on Jamaica – the land, the pits, what is owed to workers, contractors, utility companies and Petrojam. Everything is left on Jamaicans and the agencies of government, including the JBI, just allow them to run wild, mine, get rich and leave their mess behind.”

Manchester, Bunting said, has become a disaster zone, and he wants binding agreements that include fines for companies that fail to restore the land they have mined, urging for a fixed sum per ton of bauxite mined to be held in an escrow account for land reclamation.

Looks post-apocalyptic

“South Manchester, in particular, looks post-apocalyptic. That’s the landscape now, and that’s the only way I can describe it. And I am making a distinction between the original bauxite companies – the Alcans, the Alcoas. They had the standard of the plants that were at the same standards in Canada or Texas or whichever was their home country. Now it is not so with these operators and companies today,” he said.

“Most [current] facilities are run-down and operated on just enough maintenance to keep going. Taxes and levies to Government have been reduced to a trickle, relative to prior years, and sometimes, the levy is waived or suspended. If that continues, you will never collect anything,” he charged.

Mining Minister Floyd Green and Roy Nicholson, chairman of the board of the Mines and Geology Division of the ministry, have not responded to questions sent by The Sunday Gleaner since February. JBI Chairman Dave Powell could not be contacted over several weeks of efforts.

However, a Sunday Gleaner source revealed that the Government, through the JBI, has discussed imposing a fine on companies which have not rehabilitated mined lands after a period. The fine is set reportedly at US$80,000 per company, but the specific details were not immediately available.

The decision was said to have been taken after a severe backlog of non-rehabilitated lands had been documented, some for decades after mining has been completed.

The Sunday Gleaner has learnt that the bauxite companies have been told to immediately clear their backlogs, and not to create any more deserted pits. Areas declared completely mined out in 2022 must be reclaimed by the end of 2025, revealed a source familiar with the situation, but who was not authorised to speak.

Former Mining Minister Phillip Paulwell said Mandeville was transformed through the industry and it paved the way for the transformation of the entire parish.

“Jamaica’s industrialisation profile came as a result of the bauxite and alumina industry. But the stewardship primarily by the Government, through the Jamaica Bauxite Institute, ... has failed over the years,” he told The Sunday Gleaner.

“It’s really a failing on the part of the JBI to do the work because these provisions are enshrined in the agreements, and there are penalties that can be attached to a bauxite company that fails to honour the agreements, such as what should be done to the mud lakes, for example,” Paulwell stated.

He, too, believes a monetary bond could be useful.

“There should be a non-negotiable mandatory monetary bond paid by the companies for every ton of bauxite mined. In addition to that, companies must know that their licences can be revoked if they do not carry out their responsibilities as per the mining agreement. As a Government, we have to be aggressive and say to them, ‘you have to do something’,” Paulwell urged.

Mikael Phillips, the two-term MP for Manchester North Western, echoed many of Bunting and Paulwell’s concerns. While Phillips acknowledged that mining brought some economic benefits in terms of the transformation of the parish, he said that the long-term damage to local communities has far outweighed those benefits.

“The mining communities are the ones affected. The town centres are always abuzz because business booms when mining is up. But when you go into the back of many of those communities, they lack infrastructure of every kind. After mining, the companies pack up and go, town centres go dead, economic and nightlife go dead, because there is no economic activity to sustain the town centre buzz, ” Phillips told The Sunday Gleaner.

Phillips also took issue with the way funds from the bauxite levy, designed in the 1970s to support mining-affected communities, have been used.

“The Bauxite Levy Act provides for the creation of the Capital Development Fund into which the revenues of the bauxite are paid. That money has been used to finance the JBI and its projects. But at the beginning of each financial year, the Government comes to Parliament, seeking to get money from the fund to help finance the Budget. Then you give me $4 million every three years to use for community development projects. That is a drop in the bucket,” Phillips said.

According to him, there is a lack of basic services, such as water, roads, and community institutions, which remain neglected in many mining-affected areas.

“Help me with water and roads. Help me refurbish the school. Buy a vehicle for the police station. I have said that I’m not spending any of the money that I get on roads. They (bauxite companies) are the real users of that road. Let them fix it as part of their community development. We had to block roads to get Jamalco to fix some roads in the constituency damaged largely by the trucks carrying the bauxite,” Phillips said, stressing the need for tangible investments in the communities that have borne the brunt of the mining industry’s environmental and social costs.

Jamaica Environment Trust CEO Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie shared similar concerns, accusing the JBI of failing to adequately address environmental issues.

“We wrote in Red Dirt (a JET publication) that the ‘JBI operates as a pro-industry agency and it has failed to carry out its environmental regulatory function adequately. The JBI does not appear to see itself as having a responsibility to address public interest concerns in a transparent and user friendly manner’,” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

Rodriguez-Moodie also criticised the lack of a clear compensation policy for communities impacted by bauxite mining. She said no bauxite company appears to have a specific compensation document, and the JET has been given the runaround by local agencies in search of a compensation policy document. Mining companies often determine their own compensation, leaving affected residents with no standardized means of receiving fair compensation for the destruction of their land and resources, she added.

“The levy quintupled Government of Jamaica’s earnings on bauxite. These funds are used by the GOJ to buy lands owned by the bauxite companies, acquire partial ownership of the companies and to establish the JBI. However, most of the money paid into the fund was used to finance Government’s Budgets, including many social democratic initiatives,” she lamented.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com