CDF grants US$1 billion grants to Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) over 5 years

Finance and Public Service Minister of Jamaica, Dr Nigel Clarke said during a parliamentary sitting that Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) has received nearly US$1 billion in budgetary support from the Capital Development Fund (CDF) over the last five years. The House approved the withdrawal of US$223 million from the CDF to provide budgetary support to the JBI for the rest of FY2018-19.

Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton said he intends to meet with the various stakeholders in the sector mining, including representatives of the mining companies as he anticipates that mining will soon get underway in his constituency in a serious way.

Dr Clarke confirmed that the US$223 million of fund will represent about 87 per cent of the total finance required by the JBI for operating expenses and capital expenditure for the fiscal year.

“The remaining funding needs are met through interest income, management fees, and technical services offered by the institute to bauxite companies. We're committed to only withdrawing from the Capital Development Fund, in line with the Bauxite Production Levy Act,” Dr Clarke said.

The JBI was established by the Government in 1975 as a regulatory, planning and development agency to manage the sovereign aspects of the Government's participation in the bauxite/alumina industry. The Capital Development Fund (CDF) was started under the Bauxite Production and Levy Act of 1974, under which the bauxite production levy was imposed and proceeds were directed to the fund.

The country now stands in the sixth place in the world after Australia, China, Brazil, Guinea, and India, producing 8.1 million tonnes of bauxite in 2017 and it has a bauxite reserve of 2 billion tonne. It is high time Jamaica spurs its mining sector and boosts bauxite production and increases in foreign exchange reserve through export and feeds the recently restarted Alpart alumina refinery.