Aggregate miner targeting 'full' $125m Andros spend

By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

An aggregate mining and land reclamation development, featuring a $15m-$20m first phase investment and creation of 35 jobs, is among three “very different and separate projects” currently targeting North Andros.

Cameron Symonette, The Symonette Group’s chief executive, is one of the principals behind the Bahamas Materials Company Ltd project that was presented to the North Andros District Council on June 9 as part of an extensive feedback and consultation process.

The presentation, a copy of which has been obtained by Tribune Business, reveals that Mr Symonette and his prospective partners plan to mine for calcium carbonate (limestone) on a 5,500 acre “brownfield” site featuring now-unused Water & Sewerage Corporation wellfields in North Andros.

The extracted rock would then be crushed and screened at a purpose-built plant before being exported by sea to either Florida or New Providence for use by the construction industry in a variety of construction applications.

However, the presentation goes beyond mere aggregate mining to explore how the land could be reclaimed, and repurposed, for other productive use such as real estate once all the rock has been extracted.

Bahamas Materials Company is proposing a corporate structure where a subsidiary, Morgan’s Bluff Development Group Ltd, would ultimately take back all the land and offer its shares to Bahamians in a bid to create wealth and ownership opportunities.

Seeking to capitalise on the government’s urgent search for economic diversification amid the devastation inflicted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bahamas Materials Company proposal suggests it could ultimately employ more than 100 Bahamians and take its investment to over $125m at full build-out. Potential production is estimated at 500-700 tons, with all mining carried out onshore at depths of between 60 to 80 feet.

Mr Symonette declined to comment when contacted by Tribune Business yesterday, but sources familiar with Bahamas Materials Company’s proposal said there were no links or connections to the much-grander North Andros Green Free Trade Zone being proposed by Los Angeles-based billionaire philanthropist, Dr Patrick Soon-Shiong.

And they also revealed that there is another competing proposal on the drawing board for North Andros in the shape of Bahamas Agricultural Resources (BAR), a farming project that is seeking some 25,000 acres of Crown Land and Bahamas Agricultural and Industrial Corporation (BAIC) land in the Twin Lakes area.

Documents obtained by Tribune Business reveal that, in early 2019, the BAR proposal included former US ambassador to The Bahamas, Ned Siegel, along with Benjamin Simmons and his son, who have extensive farming interests across the US in states such as the Carolinas, Louisiana, Maryland and Georgia. One of their Bahamian partners was James Edgar Curling, principal of sand miner, Tycoon Management (see other article on Page 1B).

With North Andros suddenly becoming a potential investment “hot spot” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, one source confirmed on condition of anonymity: “There are three very different project proposals being developed for North Andros. I’m aware of all three. They are three very separate projects involving different people, and these are things the Government has to consider.”

The Bahamas Materials Company presentation to the North Andros District Council some ten days ago is understood to be part of the group’s efforts to get all its material and documents in order for a formal submission to the Bahamas Investment Authority (BIA) and other government agencies.

The presentation discloses that Mr Symonette’s partner in the project is Ted Baker, founder and chief executive of US-based Blue Water Industries, a construction materials supplier billed as emerging into “one of the top five privately-held aggregate suppliers” having been founded in 2018.

Mr Baker, whose family have been involved in the aggregates industry since 1929, previously sold another industry venture, Bluegrass Materials Company, to industry giant Martin Marietta for $1.625bn in 2018 after just eight years in existence. He will provide the mining and production expertise, and develop a customer base and market access for the business in Florida.

“It has the financing, it has the expertise, and it has the access to market,” one source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said of the Bahamas Materials Company plan. “They have a team of people on the ground doing the well testing, land-planners and site planners as well. There’s a recognition that Andros has some natural resources and attractions, and that it’s time to develop that part of The Bahamas and bring sustainable development to the island.”

They added that Bahamas Materials Company was “committed to transparency” with its proposal, and was currently obtaining feedback from Andros residents and officials to ensure its plans matched the community’s needs and how they wanted their island to be developed.

“They’re working on trying to get feedback from the community on what their needs are, and how they would fit sit as an integrated component of the fabric of North Andros,” another contact familiar with the group’s proposal added.

“The project is the culmination of 16 years of research that began in 2004. They’ve been working towards building a project core around an aggregate mining project business in North Andros that has the foundation of community partnership and best-in-class operating practice in this space. It’s not a speculative thing.” T

Tribune Business was told that Bahamas Materials Company’s ambitions have been reignited by the Government’s post-COVID-19 push for greater economic diversification, which had encouraged it to “move the project to an actionable NEC (National Economic Council or Cabinet) submission” after letting it sit dormant from 2016 due to minimal government interest.

Carlos Palacios, the Bahamian environmental engineer, is leading a team featuring Caribbean Coastal Services/BRON to update and complete the necessary Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and Environmental Management Plan (EMP), building on work carried out in 2001, 2009 and 2016.

To minimise the environmental impact, Bahamas Materials Company will not undertake offshore mining operations to protect both the Joulter Cays MPA (marine protected area) and the endangered species that inhabit it.

Instead, its activities will be confined to a 5,500 acre site centred on now-unused Water & Sewerage Corporation wellfields suffering from salt water intrusion as a result of recent hurricanes. The location is south of Lowe Sound, north of Red Bays Road and east of the Queen’s Highway. The company is pledging that less than 2 percent of pine forests, and under 1 percent of shrubs, will be impacted.

The North Andros District Council presentation promises that the project will “create economic opportunities for Bahamians”, with “35 full-time, well-paying jobs within six months and 70-80 jobs within five years”. Posts will include construction, management and operations, with Bahamas Materials Company also stating its willingness to pay royalties to the Government for use in either the sovereign wealth fund or in the Andros community.

“They’ve started to spend the money on the engineering so they can tell the Government they will legitimately start developing the project within six months of approval,” one source added, suggesting that the development could cover a 25 to 40-year period.

They said the aggregate mining would only cover 2,500-3,000 acres, with up to 2,000 acres available immediately to the Morgan’s Bluff Development Company for other purposes. Mr Symonette and his partners are understood to believe their activities could provide the platform for other entrepreneurs to develop electricity utilities, shipping ports and real estate in North Andros - opportunities they will not seek to own.

While Morgan’s Bluff Development Company would initially be set up and owned by Bahamas Materials Company, sources said the latter ultimately planned to make shares and ownership positions available to the local community and other Bahamians.

“The intent is that the group would be owned by locals and a cross-section of Bahamians so that the project generates wealth rather than just jobs for Bahamians,” one said.

Comments

birdiestrachan says...

Shares to Bahamians something like Arawak Port. 40% belongs to 11 families
40% to the Government and about 50 thousand Bahamians have 20% shared among them

In the words of Bethel it is not even worth the paper it is written on.

Posted 19 June 2020, 2:55 p.m. Suggest removal

themessenger says...

Birdie dear, you have to pay money for shares in anything, something Bahamians, on the whole, don't like to do as free lunch is more in our line.
Not only that, when you buy shares you're speculating that what you're buying into might actual turn a profit at some stage otherwise dog eat your lunch.
Now us natives we prefer to invest our money in different tings, such as rum, dope, numbers and anyting leave over afta dat going in da hairy bank.

Posted 19 June 2020, 3:12 p.m. Suggest removal

moncurcool says...

So true. We always want something for nothing. Time to change that mentality.

Posted 19 June 2020, 3:56 p.m. Suggest removal

truetruebahamian says...

If you knew the history and limitations of the pie in the sky role popular ideas of araganite, you would realise that different sand has different uses. Sahara sand is very close to aragonite. The oolite sand form. Neither are anywhere close to be usefu; for building. I has been ground to too smooth a surface.to be adhesive. It is NOT the form that is silicate for glass or computer industry as it has no silicone base. Research - and talk to people who know rather than guessing and beieving stupid lies

Posted 19 June 2020, 6:44 p.m. Suggest removal

birdiestrachan says...

The TRUTH is that so many people having a few shares the returns are very, very
small.

May good old common sense be the order of the day. most are aware that shares
are purchased with money.

Posted 19 June 2020, 6:52 p.m. Suggest removal

tribanon says...

How does the Symonette Family, well known to be notorious robber barons of national wealth belonging to all Bahamians, get away with all of this proposed environmentally damaging activity? How is it the Symonette Family can so easily get thousands of acres of Crown Land any time they want and for any purpose they want? Will Minnis end up being 'given' an ownership stake or some other type of lucrative financial interest in this environmentally damaging project?

All Bahamians full deserve to know just what the hell is going on here. And notice how details of this proposed project are made public at a time when those with very great wealth reckon the dead carcass of the Bahamas is now fully theirs for the picking. Here we see the great greed of the Symonette Family unabashedly on display, even bringing in foreign partners to help them feast on both our national and natural heritage. And to think a few hundred low paying Bahamian jobs is all they feel they need to dangle in our faces. Utterly disgraceful!

Posted 19 June 2020, 7:28 p.m. Suggest removal

Baha10 says...

Given that we are assured our Country is going under water thanks to rising sea levels due to Global Warming, it seems a little peculiar that we would actively seek to accelerate this process by “digging up” what above water material we have for profit ... as surely in the not too distant future we will be required to “buy back” such material to create artificial Islands once our existing ones have become submerged and indeed, gone under?!?

Posted 20 June 2020, 3:54 p.m. Suggest removal

exclusivezayy239 says...

exactly ! the bahamas will soon be under water

Posted 28 December 2020, 1:07 a.m. Suggest removal

exclusivezayy239 says...

keep up digging up . when the bahamas sinks underwater i wonder what they gone do , CLIMATE CHANGE IS SERIOUS AND THE GVT ISN'T DOING ANYTHING

Posted 28 December 2020, 1:09 a.m. Suggest removal

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