Noranda employees protest at JET headquarter against campaign to stop bauxite mining around Cockpit Country

More than 200 employees and community leaders from Noranda Bauxite Company's plant in the Cockpit Country protested in front of the headquarters of Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) yesterday against a campaign to stop Noranda’s mining operations outside the protected area. The demonstrators said they wanted the environmental watchdog to listen to the actual industry facts.

They accused JET and other activist groups of spreading “propaganda and false news” by demanding a bauxite mining ban in or around the protected area.

“The environmentalist groups, the artistes and sections of the media are trying to lock us down,” said Alfred Henry, a mining superintendent at Noranda Bauxite.

He expressed concern over investors moving out because of political interference in industrial activities. Despite the fact that Special Mining Lease (SML) 173 is outside the CCPA, the environmentalists are claiming it is encroaching too close to the CCPA.

“We are not mining in the Cockpit Country Protected Area and we are not disturbing the turbidity at Dunn's River Falls,” he said.

JET's Chief Executive Officer Suzanne Stanley claimed that bauxite mining is moving “closer to the protected area boundary and threatening the welfare and livelihoods of surrounding communities.”

Senator Robert Morgan recently stated that the special mining license 173 which is being protested by environmentalists is not a guarantee to mine and said that the government will make a prudent decision. Mining permit to Noranda would have to await a final decision to be taken by the Natural Resources Conservation Authority and the Town and Country Planning Authority by December 2019.