Lance Neita | The future is now – bauxite, alumina, aluminium

With global metal producers celebrating aluminium as the green metal of the future, and the consumption of the metal increasing by more than 100 per cent since year 2000, aluminium is now being posted by marketing analysts as the metal with the highest growth in demand in the world.

And the chief source of commercially manufactured aluminium is bauxite.

It stands to reason, therefore, that any discussion on bauxite in Jamaica today should include an appreciation and understanding of bauxite’s role as the prime source of raw material for the world’s most abundant metallic element.

Jamaica and the Jamaican economy can pivot on this fact, as the importance, value and development of our natural, God-given resource is of considerable significance to our future economic growth.

To describe aluminium as the green metal of the future is no idle boast. Tagged “light, strong and beautiful”, the aluminium found in Jamaica’s ‘red gold’ soils plays a vital role in the transition to a more sustainable energy system, is a key contributor to environmental balance, provides a reduction in the reliance on fossil fuels, and is supportive of a greener economy.

With rising concentrations of greenhouse gases accelerating global warming, the need for reducing these has put increasing demands on industry to utilise more energy efficiency mechanisms, structures and processes that are environmentally safe and sustainable.

If there is anything that fits perfectly into this ‘performance with sustainability’ equation, it is aluminium, the green metal.

Hence the recycling and usage of the eco-friendly and strong, flexible, non-corrosive and light-weight aluminium in the engineering and manufacturing of automobiles, airplanes, ships, major construction, edifices, solar panels, electrical transmission systems, batteries, electric cars, to name a few.

There is hardly a single area of production that has not been impacted by the metal’s dynamic properties. No wonder, the impetus to increase the demand for aluminium.

STOP LIMITING

We need to stop limiting our horizons and conversations in Jamaica to the mining of bauxite, its conversion into alumina, and shipments of both as the be-all and end-all of the local industry.

The paradigm has shifted, and the growing world aluminium industry is zeroing in more and more on its core material bauxite to sustain that growth.

With the world depending on bauxite as the prized source of the wonder metal, we must continue to be an active player in the expanding bauxite, alumina and aluminium cycle, with our presence in the marketplace strengthened by our experience, substantial reserves, responsible mining procedures, and natural geographic advantages.

But the competition is intense. Jamaica has long lost its position as the world’s foremost bauxite producer. Today, we are bit players in an unceasing struggle for increased production and a bigger market share by all countries producing bauxite. These include the giants Australia, Guinea, China, Brazil, India, and Indonesia.

Australia is the world’s largest producer, their production amounting to an estimated 100 million metric tons in 2022, with Jamaica hovering around a mere four million tons, way short of our total capacity.

The increasing demand for aluminium, however, gives Jamaica the potential to further secure its export and foreign exchange opportunities in line with the world’s growing preference for the ‘metal of the future’.

Any decline in our production means a reversal of our share of the aluminium market, with negative impact on Jamaica’s national income.

It therefore makes little sense to drive nails into an industry which can take Jamaica up to higher levels of economic stability.

The Gleaner has repeatedly made the point that any debate on the future of the industry and its far-reaching consequences need to be conducted with Jamaica’s interest paramount around the meeting table.

COMMUNITY-ORIENTED APPROACH

The companies have all taken a community-oriented approach backed by the practice of responsible mining in managing their operations that has made bauxite mining in Jamaica unique among other similar bauxite operations in the world.

Those steps include constant improvements to environmental practices, community consultations prior to mining, land rehabilitation after mining, wide-ranging social responsibility programmes, concern and respect for their neighbours, and working with government and environment agencies to develop policies and regulations that are in the best interests of the communities, the country, and the industry.

Carlton Davis reminds us, in Volume III of Jamaica in the World Aluminium Industry series, that, when we engaged in a borrowing relationship with the IMF during the 1970s and 1980s, it was the bauxite and alumina companies that we relied on to bring their levy payments forward in order to meet the quarterly IMF payments.

The flow of investment realised from the emergence and growth of our bauxite industry, and the management of our relationships with multinational corporations in a constantly changing business landscape, is a testimony to Jamaica’s ability and acumen to engage with global entities across the world.

Contrary to misplaced allegations of ‘sell-out to foreigners’, the local companies are staffed 99% by Jamaicans, and managed, or have been managed, by Jamaicans at the very top of the ladder.

If I may call familiar names, Dr Keith Panton, chairman and CEO, Alcan Jamaica; Robert Honiball, general manager, Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite; Frazer Perry, resident manager, Kaiser Jamaica; Geoff Smith, who became president of the Kaiser Aluminum Corporation.

Jerome Maxwell, managing director, JAMALCO; Pansy Johnson, Jamaica’s first female general manager of a bauxite operation, and Delroy Dell, vice-president and country manager of the 100 per cent Jamaican staffed Discovery Bauxite Partners.

These and other Jamaican giants of the industry have been and are responsible for the million-dollar investments in the country which galvanised the energy and dynamism of government/company partnerships to build one of the most productive and valued industries in Jamaica.

As it was in 1953, the local industry, bauxite and alumina, stands poised to be a reliable source of raw material to meet the increasing global demand and growth of the metal of the future, aluminium, with long-term positive returns for national economic sustainability. Come the New Year, we should not drop this ball.

Lance Neita is public relations professional and author. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com or to lanceneita@hotmail.com