Jamaican Bauxite HistoryBauxite is much the most important mineral occurring in Jamaica. It exists as a layer varying in thickness over about a thousand square miles of the white limestone in the western two-thirds of the island. The best deposits lie in shallow basins at heights above 1, 000 feet. Its origin is uncertain, but there is increasing evidence that it was produced by the tropical weathering, over millions of years, of the limestone that once covered the whole of central and western Jamaica. Jamaican bauxite history goes back as far 1950.
Though the existence of the bauxite had been known for some years beforehand, it was not until the demand for aluminum mounted sharply in the Second World War that tests were made to see if it was worth mining. Samples sent abroad for analysis indicated that its composition differed from the ores worked in America and from those imported by that country from the Guiana�s. However there has been a long documented problem of bauxite pollution in Jamaica.
For one thing, its alumina content was lower. Thus it was discovered that 6 tons of Jamaican bauxite were needed to make 1 ton of aluminum, compared with only 4 tons of the ore mined in Guyana. Because of this and other differences it was impossible to extract the alumina economically in any of the factories existing at that time. However, this disadvantage was more than offset by certain favorable factors. First, Jamaican reserves were enormous and easily accessible. Second, the rock lay on the surface of the land and was easily worked. However there are several other problems facing bauxite mining in Jamaica such as declining demand globally.
Third, the deposits lay only 1,000 miles from the Gulf Coast ports, and transport costs to the U.S.A. were low. Soon after the war, Canadian and American companies built the special plants needed to extract alumina from Jamaican bauxite, purchased large properties in the island and began operations. The amount of bauxite mined rose from 400,000 tons in 1952 to over 12 million tons in 1972, and today Jamaica and Australia share first place as the world�s leading bauxite producers.
Mining is carried out by open-pit methods, so no miners work underground. The topsoil is cleared from a few acres and the underlying bauxite is removed with huge mechanical shovels. A single deposit 50 acres in extent may yield over 5 million tons before it is exhausted and the land restored.
Some of the mining companies export the bauxite itself. They dry the ore in rotating ovens and load it on to ships at the north coast ports of Discovery Bay and Ocho Rios to be taken to their alumina factories in the United States. Exports totaled over 7 million tons in 1972. The other firms extract the alumina in Jamaica, their factories being located at Kirkvine, Ewarton, Maggotty, Nain, and Halse Hall. Many people ask where is bauxite found in Jamaica and the answer is at these locations.
At each of these factories the ore is ground into fine particles and dumped into tanks of hot caustic soda solution under high pressure. This process dissolves alumina (that is aluminum oxide), while the unwanted residue�consisting mainly of iron oxide and silica�settles to the bottom and is strained off and dumped. The alumina is then re-precipitated from solution and heated to 2,000F. It emerges as a white powder resembling table salt.
About 2 tons of dry bauxite is needed to make a ton of alumina. The output from these factories, which totaled 2 million tons in 1972, is taken by rail to the south coast ports of Port Kaiser, Port Esquivel, and Rocky Point. From there it is shipped to Kitimat in British Columbia, to various parts of the United States, to Scandinavia, and to various other parts of the world for conversion to aluminum. The metal itself is not made in Jamaica as the process requires large quantities of cheap electricity. This is obtained from hydro-electricity at Kitimat and in Scandinavia. In the southern United States it is generated from oil and natural gas.
The benefits of the bauxite and alumina industries are mainly financial. By paying high wages to their employees they have made poor agricultural districts more prosperous. By paying royalties on the amount of bauxite they mine, and income tax on the profits they make, they have enabled the Jamaican government to undertake development projects which would otherwise have been impossible. In addition, industries linked with bauxite are coming into being. Two examples are the manufacture of caustic soda which, as we have seen, is used in producing alumina, and the manufacture of aluminum products such as furniture.
But there are also problems and disadvantages. For one thing the bauxite and alumina companies, which are all foreign owned, control one-tenth of the total land surface of Jamaica, an area equal to that of Barbados, Grenada and St Vincent put together. Can a nation claim to be truly independent in these circumstances? For another, bauxite and alumina do not provide employment for large numbers of people. Thus, at a time when the population of Jamaica is rising by more than 40,000 a year and 200,000 people are looking for work, the number employed in producing bauxite and alumina is less than 10,000.
Even the high wages paid by the bauxite Jamaica companies it can create a problem for society as a whole, as they cannot be matched by other employers. This causes dissatisfaction among workers in other sectors of the economy. A further problem of a very different kind is that of finding a use for the rock waste which the alumina factories dump to form large ugly lakes of red mud. There are plans to extract iron, and perhaps also titanium, from this mud.
On the southern slopes of the mountains behind Bull Bay a few miles east of Kingston there is a deposit of several million tons of gypsum. Over 300,000 tons of it is quarried each year. Some is used in the local cement industry and the manufacture of other building materials. The remainder is taken to the eastern end of Kingston harbor to await export to the United States, a very important fact for the history of bauxite mining in Jamaica.
Other minerals present in Jamaica include marble and silica, and ores of copper, lead, zinc, manganese and iron. Some of these are worked in small quantities. For instance, silica sand found near Black River is made into glass bottles. Bat guano, found in caves in limestone areas, is used locally as fertilizer as it is rich in phosphates. Petroleum has been sought for, but so far none has been found. |
