By Balford Henry, News EditorABOUT 50 employees of the West Indies Alumina Company (WINDALCO) are to be made redundant by tomorrow, as the company contracts out its Kirkvine Mines and related facilities to the Australian mining company, Henry Walker Eltin (HWE).
The 10-year contract valued at US$72 million had been under negotiation for approximately eight months and was signed on Friday. WINDALCO said that under the agreement, HWE will have responsibilities for all mining and quarrying for its Kirkvine operations. HWE will also have responsibility for its limestone operations. WINDALCO will revert to maintaining responsibility for community relations and land restoration.
The contracted mining activities were previously run by 50 employees of WINDALCO, approximately all of whom are expected to be made redundant by tomorrow as HWE will start operations on Monday.
The Kirkvine operation is owned by WINDALCO, a joint venture involving Glencore International AG (93 per cent interest) and the Jamaican Government (7 per cent interest), which bought out the former Alcan Jamaica investment in June, 2001.
HWE's CEO, Bruce James, in a statement on the agreement confirmed that the contract was valued at approximately US$72 million and involved the provision of mining and cable belt operation for the Kirkvine bauxite/alumina complex, as well as the nearby limestone operation.
Kirkvine will become the third bauxite mining operation contracted to Henry Walker Eltin in Jamaica. Other existing contracts involve the company providing mining, rehabilitation and conveyor transport services to Alpart, and mining and rail-loading operations for Jamalco. The contract with Jamalco was awarded in April 2000.
In addition to mining, the services performed under the contract will include responsibility for a 7.8 kilometre cable belt conveyor similar to the 16-kilometre unit that they already operate at Alpart.
Alumina from Kirkvine is usually transported to Port Kaiser for shipment to the USA. WINDALCO also owns the Ewarton refinery from where bauxite is taken by rail to the south coast port of Port Esquivel and shipped to such places as Canada, Norway and Sweden.
Mr James said that the development of a service spread across the Jamaican bauxite industry is part of its international strategy, which has focused on rationalising HWE offshore operations to reduce risk and capitalise on quality opportunities with the potential to develop critical mass. He said that both Jamaica and Ghana provided significant opportunities to do this.
National Workers Union (NWU) vice-president, Norman DaCosta, who is responsible for the bauxite/alumina sector, claims that the objective of the new contract was to reduce mining costs by an average US$1 per tonne and to ensure reliability. WINDALCO did not comment on the statement.
