The Jamaican government reiterated its commitment to sustainable and economically competitive bauxite production this week.
Speaking at the opening of the Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited (JBM) Pop-Up Museum, Minister of Transport and Mining Audley Shaw promised that a major component of bauxite production on the island would be environmental responsibility.
“I want to assure the country that even as we continue to mine for bauxite, we will pay even more attention to the environmental issues. We will make sure that we do what we have to do to protect the environment and that we have proper land reclamation so that our farmers will still be able to use our land and so on.”
Shaw continued by saying that the task would not be accomplished by any one stakeholder alone.
“We can work together. I want to say to the environmentalists […] let’s not be enemies because there are things we can do to improve on how we mine and how we restore our lands.”
Minister of State in the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce Norman Dunn said that bauxite production was key to the island’s economic success.
“The bauxite and the associated benefits that we have accrued as a result of this particular ore in Jamaica would have allowed us the financial latitude to enhance our development.”
The museum opened to display the history of bauxite mining in Jamaica, which shipped its first load of the ore in 1952.