By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Andros Chamber of Commerce president says opinion the island is favourable towards a multi-million aggregate mining project proposed by Cameron Symonette and his business partners.

Darin Bethel told Tribune Business that concerns voiced about the Bahamas Materials Company’s (BMC) proposal are unfounded. Speaking after the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) recently issued a statement on the matter, he said there will be no negative environmental fall-out for ecologically sensitive areas on Andros. 

“This is not a similar project that the residents rejected last year because that project was really two projects. One was for 500,000 acres and was seeking to mine, and put also a marina and Free Trade Zone like what’s on Grand Bahama,” he said. 

“The businesses on the island are open to the project. There is a lot of support on the ground for the project, but some have raised concerns about the environmental impact and how it will impact the water lenses and the blue holes of Andros.  Those are the main concerns facing the project right now. But people want to see more revenue in Andros; they just want to know that the mining will be done safely.” 

The BNT said in a statement that it does not support large scale, extractive projects such as mining taking place in The Bahamas although it did not refer to Bahamas Materials Company specifically.

Branding the BNT’s fears as unfounded, Mr Bethel said: “Their main concerns are for Joulter cays, which is offshore. It is very difficult for that project to affect the Joulter cays because that is off the coast of Andros and not connected to the mainland. If that is their only concern then that can be mitigated.” 

Bahamas Materials Company is headed by Cameron Symonette, the Symonette Group’s chief executive, and his business partner, Ted Baker. The proposal, which was first presented to the Minnis Cabinet, is understood to have been shown to the Davis administration at end-January and a decision is now awaited as to whether it will be given approval in principle so Bahamas Materials can begin the process of obtaining its environmental approvals and holding Town Meetings with the community in North Andros.

Sources familiar with the project, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to do so, said it planned to create 163 direct jobs in Andros along with numerous spin-off entrepreneurial opportunities. They dismissed any climate change concerns, saying the project will be located on “fallow” land in the shape of the Water & Sewerage Corporation’s 5,500 acre wellfields that have been inundated with seawater from past hurricanes.

Bahamas Materials plans to mine the site for calcium carbonate (limestone). 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 plans go 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, owned by local residents would control/own the land and lease portions to it for mining via a phased approach.

“The control remains with the Government and the people,” a source said. “This project will pay royalties, it will pay taxes and it will pay Business Licence fees.”