Minister Urges Mining Operators to Place Greater Focus on Innovation

  • Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, Hon. Floyd Green, is urging existing and potential mining operators to place greater focus on innovation, value addition and sustainability.
  • “Part of the complaint with some of our historical minerals and the things that we’ve mined for years is that we haven’t focused on carrying it to the finished product, and as such, we haven’t retained enough of the dollars that are spent on the finished product,” he said. Mr. Green was addressing Tuesday’s (May 7) Minerals Sector Investment Forum, held at the Jamaica Conference Centre in Kingston.
  • The Minister encouraged operators to diversify sources of construction materials. “Significant work has been done in Jamaica about our geology, so we do know that we have these items in significant quantities, but we need more of our companies to be looking into quarrying hard volcanic rocks,” Mr. Green said.
  • He further stated “We believe that there are opportunities to partner our limestone sector with what we need to do to mitigate… climate change and to limestone quarry for specific purposes, especially purposes such as coastal defences. It’s very important, as we see rising sea levels, that we look at how we are setting up these barriers to ensure that some of our low-lying towns and capitals are protected.”
  • Additionally, he pointed out that the minerals sector is critical to Jamaica’s growth and development. “The mining sector is the cornerstone of our economy. For the 2.0% growth that we had last year in our GDP (gross domestic product), our mining sector contributed 1.1%” he said.
  • Mr. Green further shared that the sector is responsible for about 80% of Jamaica’s earnings from traditional exports. “Last year, our earnings amounted to over US$325Mn from the exportation through our mining sector; so again, it has proven to be a really strong driving force for growth and prosperity. Thankfully, we saw the rebound of alumina exportation last year with Jamalco coming back on stream, and we have seen significant increases – in fact, over 300% increase in our limestone exportation during last year,” he informed.

(Source: JIS)