Development of The Bauxite/Alumina Sector
The commercial production of aluminium began only in the last decade of the nineteenth century, although the existence of the metal in certain kinds of ores was known by scientists from the beginning of that century. However, until World War II greatly increased the demand for aluminium, little attention was paid to the deposits of bauxite outside Europe and the United States of America, including Jamaica, where geologists had noted the “red ferruginous earth” as far back as 1869, without recognizing its significance.
During the 1940s exploration and development work was carried out in Jamaica, mainly by Alcan, Reynolds and Kaiser.
Jamaican bauxite was not used during the war, but these three North American companies (Alcan, Kaiser and Reynolds) came to the island to survey, acquire reserve lands, and set up operations. Reynolds began exporting bauxite from Ocho Rios in June 1952, and Kaiser followed a year later from Port Kaiser on the south coast. Alcan built the first alumina processing plant near its mines at Kirkvine, Manchester, and in early 1952 began shipping alumina from Port Esquivel. This was the beginning of the industry in Jamaica.
After the first shipment of bauxite from Jamaica in 1952, production increased rapidly, and by 1957 Jamaica had become the leading bauxite producer in the world, with a production capacity of nearly 5 million tonnes of bauxite per year, almost a quarter of all the bauxite mined in the world in that year. Alcan built a second refinery in Jamaica at Ewarton, St. Catherine, in 1959. In 1961, a fourth company, Alcoa, began mining bauxite in the island.
The production of alumina also increased, especially after the mid-1960s. By 1968, Alcan had brought the capacity of its two refineries to more than 1 million tonnes a year. In 1969 a new plant was commissioned at Nain, St. Elizabeth, by Alpart, then a consortium of Kaiser, Reynolds and Anaconda, another U.S. company. In 1971, Revere Copper and Brass opened the island’s fourth alumina plant at Maggotty, St. Elizabeth. Two years later, Alcoa, which had been shipping unprocessed bauxite since 1963, built the country’s fifth refinery, at Halse Hall, Clarendon.
In 1971 Australia overtook Jamaica as the world’s leading producer of bauxite. At the end of the 1970s, Guinea in West Africa, which had the world’s highest- grade bauxite, also drew ahead of Jamaica, and was then followed by Brazil in the early 1980’s and China and India in the first decade of this century.
Australia remains the world’s largest bauxite producer with output of 75 million tonnes in 2018. In second place was China at 70 million tonnes followed by Guinea (50 million tonnes), Brazil (27 million tonnes) and India (24 million tonnes). Jamaica had by then fallen to sixth place in the world, producing 10 million tonnes of bauxite. Jamaica’s share of world bauxite output has therefore fallen from 18% in the 1970s to about 2% of total world production of 300 million tonnes in 2018.
Regarding alumina, in 2018, Jamaica was ranked sixth in the world with an output of 2.5 million tonnes. China, Australia and Brazil were the top three (3) producing countries with outputs of 72 million, 19 million and 7.9 million tonnes respective
Bauxite & Alumina Plants
Alumina Partners of Jamaica (ALPART) has its bauxite mining and alumina processing plant located at Nain, St. Elizabeth, in the south of Jamaica. The company was first established in the early 1960s under the union of three companies (Anaconda, Kaiser Aluminum and Reynolds Metals). Since then it has undergone several partnership and ownership changes, the last of which took place in 2017, resulting in full ownership of the company being transferred to Jiuquan Iron & Steel Company (JISCO).
The refinery was closed in 2009 in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis. However, in June 2017 the refinery reopened with its new owners, JISCO, at the helm. Alpart has a capacity of 1.65 million tonnes, which makes it the largest refinery in Jamaica. It can be further expanded to 2.0 million tonnes.
In September 2019, the operation at the refinery was suspended to undertake upgrading exercises
Located in Clarendon, Jamalco is a joint-venture between General Alumina Jamaica LLC (formerly known as Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica, LLC) and Clarendon Alumina Production Ltd. (a wholly owned Government company). Effective December 1, 2014, the Noble Group acquired Alcoa Minerals of Jamaica from Alcoa. As a result, the Clarendon Alumina Works refinery and related mining and port operations, which continue to be carried out under the name “Jamalco”, is owned 55% by General Alumina Jamaica LLC (GAJ) and 45% by Clarendon Alumina Production Ltd (CAP).
For almost 20 years Jamalco was owned in equal shares by Alcoa and CAP under a 1988 Joint Venture Agreement. Prior to this, Government participated in the joint venture under an October 1976 agreement when Alcoa as the majority shareholder owned 94 per cent of the interest and Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited (a wholly owned Government company) owned the remaining 6 per cent. CAP was created in 1985 to operate the refinery, which was leased following its closure in that year.
Initially, only bauxite was mined and exported from the Rocky Point port in Clarendon, with the first shipment of bauxite leaving for the United States in May 1963. The first shipment of alumina took place nine years later in May 1972, following the construction and opening of the refinery.
The refinery has undergone upgrading over the years with the latest coming in 2007. The current design capacity of the Jamalco refinery is 1.416 million tonnes per annum.
Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners II, formerly St. Ann Bauxite Jamaica Limited and prior to that Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company, is a partnership between Noranda Bauxite Limited (NBL), a Jamaican limited liability company, and the Government of Jamaica. Noranda Bauxite Limited has a 49% interest in the partnership and holds and operates the physical mining assets and operations. The Government of Jamaica owns the remaining 51 percent.
A concession from the Government of Jamaica permits Noranda Bauxite Limited to mine bauxite in Jamaica through 2030. Bauxite is mined at St. Ann and the ore is transported via railway to Port Rhoades. There, it is dried and shipped to its customers. A considerable portion of the bauxite mined at St. Ann is shipped to the Gramercy refinery in Louisiana, where it is refined into alumina.
Major expansion work in 2011 resulted in a production capacity boost from 4.5 million tonnes of bauxite per annum to 5.4 million tonnes per annum.
West Indies Alumina Company (WINDALCO), formerly Jamalcan, is a fully owned by Rusal. The entity comprises two alumina plants – Ewarton Works in St. Catherine and Kirkvine Works in Manchester. The company owns bauxite mines in Schwallenburgh (Ewarton) and Russell Place (Kirkvine) and farms in Manchester and St Ann. Shipments depart Jamaica from its shipping port, Port Esquivel.
Alumina processing started at Kirkvine Works in December 1952. With the growing demand for alumina in the 1950s, Kirkvine Work’s production capacity was expanded in a series of construction programmes, from 220,000 tonnes per year in 1954 to 550,000 tonnes by 1968.
In 1956, construction work began on a second alumina plant at Ewarton in St. Catherine. The plant’s initial design capacity called for 250,000 tonnes of alumina per year, with provision for further expansion in its design. Alumina was first produced at Ewarton Works in October 1959.
Today, Kirkvine Works is in a mothballed state after production ceased during the first half of 2009 when depressed market conditions emanating from the Global Financial Crisis rendered operations unviable. Ewarton Works, which also closed in 2009 but reopened in 2010, remains operational. Ewarton Work’s production capacity stands at 600,000 tonnes of alumina per annum.
The Making of an Industry
At the beginning of the 18th century Sir Humphrey Davy anticipated the existence of the metal aluminium. The metal was positively identified later that century. However, its commercial production did not begin until the 1890s, after two inventors – Charles Martin Hall (whose father served as a Congregational minister for ten years in the parish of St. Mary) in the USA and Paul Heroult in France – simultaneously invented in 1886 the process of extracting the metal from its oxide.
It was not until World War II, however, when demand for the metal increased, that attention was paid to bauxite deposits outside Europe, the United States of America, the South African colonies of the Dutch, and British Guiana. In Jamaica, geologists had noticed the “red ferruginous earth” as far back as 1869, but did not understand its significance.
Between 1938 and 1942, Sir Alfred Da’Costa, a Jamaican businessman, was having soil fertility tests done on his farm at Lydford, St. Ann, when he discovered that the land was highly aluminous.
Through Da’Costa’s efforts, the existence of the aluminous soils was brought to the attention of (a) the authorities in the United Kingdom, from whom it was passed on to the Canadians through their sole company, Alcan; and (b) the Dutch firm, Billiton, through his connection as Dutch Honorary Consul in Jamaica. In any event, the Dutch firm did not have a long stay here and so, for a while, Alcan was the sole explorer of the reserves in the island.
Two other North American companies – Reynolds and Kaiser – were later to join in. In 1952, Reynolds began exporting bauxite from Ocho Rios, and a year later Kaiser launched its export activities from Post Kaiser on the south coast. Alcan built an alumina plant near its mines at Kirkvine, Manchester, and in early 1952 began shipping the product.
Development of the Industry
After the first shipments, production increased rapidly, and within five years Jamaica had become the leading producer of bauxite in the world. In 1957, nearly 5 million tons of bauxite were produced, the equivalent of almost a quarter of all the bauxite mined in the world.
In 1959, Alcan built a second refinery at Ewarton, St. Catherine. By 1961, a fourth company, ALCOA, had begun operating in Jamaica. By 1968, Alcan had brought the capacity of its two refineries to more than 1 million tons per year. In 1969 a new plant was commissioned by ALPART at Nain, St. Elizabeth. In 1971 Revere Copper and Brass opened the island’s fourth alumina plant at Maggotty, St. Elizabeth. Two years later, ALCOA (which had been shipping unprocessed bauxite since 1963) built the country’s fifth refinery at Halse Hall, Clarendon.
The 1970s brought changes to Jamaica’s position in the world aluminium industry. In 1971, Australiaovertook the island as the world’s leading producer of bauxite. Australia now produces about 41 million tons a year, compared to Jamaica’s 11 million tons. In 1978, Jamaica was overtaken by the West African republic of Guinea as the second largest producer of bauxite, and slipped into third place, a position it has held since. It has been for several years the second largest exporter of alumina.
Notwithstanding the island’s volume of production, because of energy constraints, no smelters were built in Jamaica, and it is unlikely that any will be.
Since 1988, the local industry has recovered in line with the world aluminium industry, and output has returned to the levels which prevailed in 1980.
Government Involvement
Since 1974, the Government has set up several agencies to manage its enlarged interest in the industry. The Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) began operating in 1976 to advise, monitor, and implement policies on all aspects of the industry, as well as to conduct technical and economic research. Jamaica Bauxite Mining (JBM) was set up by the Government to hold the assets acquired from entering into partnerships or joint ventures with the companies. The Bauxite and Alumina Trading Company (BATCO) was established to carry out commercial trading activities on behalf of the other Government entities. Clarendon Alumina Production (CAP) was formed in 1985 to manufacture and sell alumina at the leased JAMALCO plant, which had shut down operations. With the re-entry of ALCOA in 1988, CAP became a joint-venture partner with an equal share in the plant.
At present, Jamaica has one bauxite company, Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners II, and three refining operations, Windalco Ewarton Works, Jamalco and Alpart. The Government has a 51% stake in Noranda Jamaica Bauxite Partners II and a 45% interest in Jamalco.