Jamalco divestment resurfaces after six years, with 30-day strategy deadline

The newly created Ministry of Mining and Geology has 30 days to deliver a plan for divesting the Government’s 45 per cent stake in the alumina plant Jamalco – six years after such plans were last raised.

Minister Floyd Green told Wednesday’s post-Cabinet press briefing that the clock has already started. “The prime minister has mandated that within 30 days we need to come to Cabinet with an implementation plan,” he said. “We are probably into day three of the 30.”

Green signalled a renewed push to offload a holding he cast as a drain on the public purse. “The Government does need to divest itself of that shareholding,” he said, describing it as “a burden, a financial burden on all of us as taxpayers”.

The plan, he said, will set out the steps required to complete the divestment and the timeframe for each stage.

Clarendon Alumina Production Limited (CAP), the state-owned company through which the Government holds its interest in the refinery, has returned to the ministry’s portfolio. The Office of the Prime Minister announced the new ministry earlier this week and named Green as its head.

General Alumina Jamaica Limited, a subsidiary of US-based Century Aluminum Company, owns the remaining 55 per cent and has served as managing partner since acquiring the stake in May 2023.

As previously reported, Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has directed Green to work with the Ministry of Finance and the Attorney General’s Chambers on a divestment strategy aimed at ending or significantly reducing taxpayers’ exposure to operating losses, capital requirements and other liabilities linked to the operation. Independent valuation and legal due diligence are to support the process.

The Government last outlined a divestment strategy in 2020, when it proposed folding Jamalco into a holding company as a step towards monetising its stake. Then Finance Minister Nigel Clarke later told Parliament the vision was for Jamaicans to “directly own a piece of a major industrial asset” through a public share offering after incorporation.

The Financial Gleaner asked Green to clarify the status of that incorporation, what milestones remain outstanding, whether the 30-day plan will carry target dates, and whether the Government is weighing a Jamaica Stock Exchange listing, a sale to its joint-venture partner, or another route.

Green had not responded up to publication time.

carolyn.guniss@rjrgleaner.com