Business
Jamaica: Limestone industry could potentially earn country billions
A leading Jamaican researcher believes that the country could earn up to US$7 billion annually by increasing the production of limestone and its value added products.
Dr. Conrad Douglas, while addressing a recent stakeholder event, revealed that Jamaica’s limestone industry offers vast opportunities for investors in agriculture, food processing, and manufacturing.
“There are great opportunities – what we found were really large. We are talking about total cumulative value for the markets of some US$7 billion,” he said, citing the production of paper, polishes, paints, rubber, glass, cosmetics, plastics and adhesives.
Jamaica, Douglas said, was blessed with rich limestone resources and is considered as the “limestone capital” of the world.
Limestone resources in Jamaica are estimated at 150 billion tonnes, of which 50 billion tonnes is recoverable. The main export markets for limestone include: the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Canada, the United States, and South America.
“Jamaican limestone is occurring naturally, we have been producing it, and we have been exporting it, and it has found acceptance in the international markets. We have pharmaceutical limestone, we have chemical limestone, and we also have metallurgical limestone – used primarily in the bauxite industry. Limestone has the most diverse end-use structure of all material known by mankind. That, in itself, presents a wide range of opportunities,” Douglas added.
But, he noted, there was need to focus on the production of high value-added products to drive the industry for the future. We believe that there is opportunity, as found from the study, to ramp-up production to a greater level,” he said, adding that currently, Jamaica imports limestone products that can be manufactured locally, and some 10 plants across the island-nation can be “ramped-up easily” for the production of these value-added items.
