JISCO commits US$490 million to restart Alpart alumina plant in Nain

Mining Minister Floyd Green has confirmed a two-phase plan to reopen and modernise Jamaica’s Alpart alumina refinery in Nain, St. Elizabeth, following high-level talks in China with Jiuquan Iron and Steel Company (JISCO) and officials from Gansu province.

Green said Alpart has long been a pillar of the island’s mining industry and a major economic driver in western Jamaica, supporting workers, contractors, transporters, small firms and nearby communities. The Nain plant, commissioned in 1969, shut for several years in the 2000s before JISCO bought it in 2017. A restart backed by roughly US$360 million created about 1,000 jobs, but production was halted in 2019 and has not resumed.

Over the past five years, JISCO completed a full feasibility review of the plant, required capital, newer technology and overseas operating models. Green noted that JISCO is a Gansu state-owned enterprise, so the provincial government is central to major investment decisions. The company has now settled on a path to reopen and upgrade the facility.

The redevelopment aims to restore annual alumina capacity of about two million tonnes in two stages: one million tonnes in phase one and another million in phase two. Phase one is valued at roughly US$490 million and covers upgrades to core plant systems and infrastructure, rebuilt power generation, dry-stacking residue management, and rehabilitation of rail and port links. Officials are targeting a formal launch before June 2027, including advanced process technology and a five-megawatt solar-plus-storage hybrid system framed as a low-carbon demonstration project. Construction for phase one is expected to take 20 months.

Talks also addressed long-term bauxite supply. JISCO has pointed to about 149 million tonnes of reserves tied to lands now under discussion. Green said those reserves would not involve Jamaica’s largest wet limestone forest, stating there is “no contemplation of any bauxite mining in the Cockpit Country or close to the Cockpit Country at all.” He added that no new lands have yet been assigned to Alpart; areas of interest are near existing operations, and some already sit under other mining leases, requiring further process.

Green also acknowledged that other companies remain interested in available mining leases, signalling that JISCO faces competitive pressure if it fails to deliver on its commitments.