Christie
KAISER Jamaica says resumption of alumina production at Gramercy, which has begun in part, will have significant impact upon local Jamaica bauxite production and is expected to lead to a doubling of year 2000 bauxite exports in 2001.
Greg Christie, Kaiser Alumina's director for Jamaica Corporate and Government Affairs, heralded the development 'as a shot in the arm for the local bauxite and alumina industry and the Jamaican economy.'
Mr. Christie said that the announcement by the Kaiser Aluminium Corporation should be viewed as a positive move for Jamaica as the St. Ann-based Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Company (KJBC) year 2000 bauxite export levels are now expected to double in year 2001. This, in turn, will provide a boost in revenues to the Government and an increase in foreign currency inflows for the country.
KJBC, which is co-owned and managed by Kaiser, is the country's only crude bauxite exporter and the sole bauxite supplier to the Kaiser-owned Gramercy, Louisiana alumina refinery. The refinery was closed on July 5, 1999, following an explosion which disabled its digestion unit.
Record
Mr. Christie observed that the closure of the refinery had interrupted what had been a four-year unbroken record of bauxite shipments from Jamaica to Gramercy by Kaiser and had caused a severe curtailment in KJBC's normal bauxite production and export levels. He said that KJBC's 1998 production of 4.02 million dry metric tonnes of bauxite had fallen dramatically to 2.79 million tonnes in 1999 and 1.98 million tonnes so far this year.
However, with the restart of the Gramercy refinery, he said that KJBC was now expected to double its year 2000 production and should ship in excess of an estimated 4.0 million dry metric tonnes of bauxite in year 2001, with approximately more than two-thirds of this amount expected to go to Gramercy.
The damaged Gramercy alumina plant, which is being rebuilt and upgraded at an approximate capital cost of US$275 million, will now have an estimated annual alumina production capacity of 1.25 million metric tonnes - an increase of 180,000 tonnes over its previous capacity of 1.07 million metric tonnes.
The plant is expected to progressively increase its alumina production over the next several weeks to approximately 75 per cent of its newly-rated capacity whilst construction of the final phase of the digestion unit is expected to be completed in March 2001.
Mr. Christie, in noting that bauxite shipments from KJBC to Gramercy had resumed on Novem-ber 2 in preparation for the restart of the refinery, said only one further shipment of approximately 37,000 dry metric tons is scheduled for Gramercy for the remainder of the current year.
He said that as Gramercy progressively increases its production, shipments from KJBC to Gramercy would be ramped up to a stabilised and average shipping rate of approximately one 37,000 dry metric ton bauxite shipment every four to six days. This, he said, would be in addition to KJBC's other shipments to its current third party customer.
"The restart of Gramercy and its impact upon KJBC holds great promise for the fuure of our St. Ann plant, our employees, our St. Ann communities , our local contractors and our other principal local stakeholder and partner, the Government of Jamaica," Mr. Christie said.
Transformations
"We are also extremely pleased with the extensive transformations in workforce revitalisation, training and productivity and in plant infrastructural refurbishment and operational improvements which the staff and management of KJBC have worked so hard to achieve at their facility during the Gramercy shut-down period. KJBC is now poised to be a long-term competitive business and should achieve relatively higher levels of efficiency, productivity and reliability in its future day-to-day operations as Gramercy's bauxite supplier of choice," he said.
Kaiser has been operating in Jamaica since 1953, and for some time has typically managed, directly or indirectly, the mining and/or refining of more than 50 per cent of all of the bauxite which is mined on the island on an annual basis.
In partnership with the Government of Jamaica, it is currently the 49 per cent co-owner of KJBC, Jamaica's only crude bauxite exporter but is entitled to 100 per cent of KJBC's bauxite output. Kaiser is also the majority owner (65 per cent) of Alumina Partners of Jamaica (Alpart).
Mr. Christie said that it was important to note that Alpart's and KJBC's combined spending and investments in Jamaica, between 1990 and 1999 totalled more than US$1.3 billion. He said that the replacement value of the two plants' combined assets currently stands in excess of US$1.6 billion.
