At PDAC 2026 in Toronto, InvestorNews host Peter Clausi spoke with The Honourable Floyd Green, MP, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining for the Government of Jamaica, on the country’s mining history and its plans to expand into critical minerals exploration.
“Very good. Happy to be here and happy to be among like-minded people looking at our minerals future,” Green said.
Jamaica has a long-standing role in the global mining industry. “We’ve been doing mining for as long as we’ve been an independent nation,” Green said. “In fact, we’re well known for bauxite mining and aluminum production.”
He said that legacy has helped establish regulatory and institutional foundations for mining development. “It means that we also have a very detailed legislative framework around mining,” Green said. “We’ve also gone through some of the early challenges related to community engagement. So we have a rich history of mining.”
While bauxite and aluminum remain central to the sector, the government is encouraging broader exploration activity. “Having been big miners of bauxite and aluminum, we see a lot of additional potential,” Green said.
Green pointed to exploration data collected by Jamaican companies as an important foundation for new investment. “Thankfully, we have strong Jamaican companies like Geophysx Jamaica Ltd. that have been doing a lot of work in data collection, and we are now seeing the payoff from that work,” he said.
That work has attracted major international partners. “We now have companies like Barrick on the ground in partnership with Geophysx, exploring for gold and copper,” Green said. “We’re very excited about that because of Barrick’s global reputation in the gold industry and the fact that they have decided to invest in Jamaica.”
The government has positioned itself as a facilitator of private-sector exploration. “A lot of what we’ve done as a government is to facilitate that process,” Green said. “We recognize that it must be a public–private partnership.”
He added that exploration data collected through these partnerships is publicly available. “Those datasets are available through our Commissioner of Mines,” Green said.
Green also highlighted ongoing exploration activity involving international partners. “What we’re seeing now on the C3 side is a partnership with Freeport coming in, again looking at copper exploration,” he said. “That includes significant investment—about US$75 million in the first phase—to conduct additional exploration work.”
Beyond traditional mining, the government is focusing on critical minerals and rare earth elements. “From a policy perspective, I have directed the team to focus more on our metallic minerals and our rare earths,” Green said.
He pointed to potential resources in Jamaica’s red mud deposits, the byproduct of bauxite processing. “As a major bauxite producer, once the bauxite is processed, valuable elements remain in the tailings,” Green said. “From the data we’ve collected so far, we’re seeing excellent ratios of heavy and light rare earth minerals—close to 50/50 in some cases.”
He said current estimates indicate more than 140 million tonnes of material in the red mud deposits, with additional potential in natural mineralization. “We have also identified in-situ locations where rare earth elements may exist,” Green said.
“These areas are open for partnerships, and Jamaica is open for business,” he said. “Think critical minerals. Think Jamaica when you’re considering investments in critical minerals. The government is ready and willing to facilitate that.”
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