Prime Minister, Dr. Andrew Holness, has handed the newly created Ministry of Mining and Geology a four-point agenda, ranging from earning more from Jamaica’s minerals to selling the Government’s stake in Jamalco.
This, as the government moves to revitalise the ailing bauxite industry.
Cabinet Minister, Floyd Green, remains the head of the new ministry while retaining policy oversight of Agriculture and Fisheries.
Mahiri Stewart tells us more.
In correspondence to Minister Floyd Green, Prime Minister, Dr. Andrew Holness, says declining ore grades, energy costs and ageing plants are weighing on the bauxite and alumina industry.
The first of the four priorities is minerals and fiscal reform.
That includes a new royalty and tax regime, a critical minerals strategy that looks at recovering valuable minerals from bauxite residue, and a reliable supply of affordable aggregates for communities rebuilding after Hurricane Melissa.
Second, Minister Green is to bring Cabinet a plan to turn the Jamaica Bauxite Institute into a Jamaica Minerals Institute.
A national mineral resource assessment is to start with limestone and aggregates, then look at gold, copper and rare earth elements where the evidence warrants.
Geologists are also to advise on housing sites and road routes before those decisions are settled.
Third is environmental protection, including a public digital licensing system, a national register of mined-out land awaiting rehabilitation, and action on the Auditor General’s recommendations.
The fourth priority is to divest the Government’s interest in Clarendon Alumina Production and its stake in Jamalco to end or sharply reduce taxpayers’ exposure to operating losses and capital calls.
The ministry has 30 days to submit a plan.
Minister Green is to report to the Prime Minister at 90 days and quarterly after that.
Minister Green told Parliament during this year’s Sectoral Debate that mining accounts for about two percent of GDP but roughly 85 percent of traditional export earnings.
Bauxite and alumina exports brought in US $612 million last year.
The sector has been hit hard since Hurricane Melissa last October.
The Statistical Institute of Jamaica says mining and quarrying shrank 26.1 percent in the April-to-June quarter, the steepest fall of any major industry, on lower alumina and bauxite output.
That followed a 37.5 percent plunge in the last quarter of 2025.
The new Mining and Geology Ministry’s Permanent Secretary is Darlene Morrison, who was reassigned from the post of Financial Secretary at the Ministry of Finance effective today, Monday.
Morrison has been replaced by Lorris Jarrett.
The Prime Minister’s statement does not mention Morrison or the reassignment.
But her move to the new Mining and Geology Ministry has drawn the ire of Opposition.
The PNP describes it as a demotion without charge or hearing, pointing out that the Financial Secretary is graded at EMG 6, while permanent secretaries are at EMG 5.
Spokesman on Finance, Julian Robinson, says Morrison has served more than 37 years at the Finance Ministry, eight of them as Financial Secretary, under successive administrations.
He is asking whether there was a breakdown with the Finance Minister or a disagreement over powers of the National Reconstruction and Resilience Authority and the Financial Administration and Audit Act.
He is also questioning the cost of creating another ministry at a time of spending restraint.
