NEWS of the planned reopening of Alpart has brought hope for increased economic activity, income and employment for the region. Planted at Nain in 1967, Alpart has immersed itself into the psyche of the people who live in that part of the island.

Its second closure in 2009 was a huge disappointment to thousands who depended on the plant for a living. The shutdown put hundreds out of work, closed numerous shops and businesses, crippled service vendors, locked off lights, parked motor vehicles, and stagnated housing and construction.

Motorists accustomed to the glittering lights of Alpart at night while traversing the Spur Tree hill were saddened by the gloomy image of a shuttered plant sprawled out on the Essex Valley plains below.

Alpart has been a part of the sweat and toil of St Elizabethans for almost 45 years. It’s been a generation thing, as families have seen grandparents, sons and daughters employed at the plant as a family rite of passage in many instances. The severance, therefore, cut deep, and residents are optimistic that the operations, which they refer to as ‘fi mi government’, will come on stream and remain this time as a permanent fixture.

Bauxite mining operations will precede the alumina processing set to commence in December 2016. The mining start-up target for January this year has been missed, but indications are that things are still in line for a first-quarter commencement. It has been announced that the agreement reached with the owners, UC Rusal, will facilitate mining and export of two million tonnes of crude bauxite over the next 18 months. Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining Minister Phillip Paulwell has been careful to point out that, while bauxite mining will resume as a first step, actual export will not commence before July.

This is a major happening. Opening up a bauxite/alumina venture of the size of Alpart is a complex process. Recruitment and training of personnel is first on the list. Fortunately, the company still has a large pool of experienced workers to draw from. Safety is paramount, and no matter how experienced they are, the veterans will have to undergo detailed and comprehensive safety orientation along with the new recruits.

The process chain links welders, electricians, drivers, accountants, secretaries, production workers, lab analysts, dock workers, mechanics, engineers, information specialists, managers, unions, locomotive operators, a whole world of workers in different categories, who are all required to make a bauxite operation turn.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the existing haul roads in the Buena Vista mining area will have to be revamped and readied for the heavyweight haul trucks that will be transporting the ore; first to the stockpile in the plant, and then down to Port Kaiser next door to Alligator Pond.

Survey crews, excavators, and loading ramps have to be in place. Community relations will play a big part in the success of the new operations and the public relations team working with the Alpart Community Council is well set to handle communications between operations and residents.

For those who are not aware, Alpart is built to extract bauxite ore from open pits in the ground and to process the ore into alumina using what is called the Bayer chemical process. The mined bauxite is received at the plant, mixed with caustic soda liquor and pumped into digestor vessels where it is heated to high temperatures. The emerging aluminate is separated from the red mud waste and the solution is then pumped to a precipitation area where, after a time, the solution cools and aluminium hydrate is precipitated out of the liquid. The coarser particles are calcined at high temperatures and the resulting end product, alumina (as a fine white powder) is transported to the port for shipping.

For Alpart, this will be the third time around. The company gave its birth cry on May 18, 1969, when the plant first went into operation. It was temporarily closed on August 13, 1985 and reopened on March 19, 1989.

We must be patient with the 2015 baby, as the inevitable start-up problems are likely. But no one wants to see the upset of an Alpart cart that will provide income and employment and a big boost to the national economy.

The first Alpart had its work cut out during the construction period in 1966-1969. It took almost three years from announcement to completion to build the plant. It was a massive construction work which required the grading of a 300-acre site involving the removal of 2,800 cubic yards of rocky limestone, marl, bauxite and topsoil. Some 286 tons of blasting powder were used to shatter the limestone cap rock.

A highlight of this period was the emphasis on training. Most of the early workforce was trained on site by the Dunwoody Institute, Minnesota. Alpart also conducted an aggressive recruitment campaign among Jamaicans overseas. Among those returning to Jamaica in 1969 to work for the new company were Dr Gilbert Allen, now retired custos of Manchester; Winston Hay, later head of JPS and OUR; and the late George Hendricks, who became president of the World Safety Professionals Organisation.

The construction period at Alpart also had its moments of high drama. There was strong and sometimes bitter rivalry between the NWU and the BITU. Things came to a head one morning, on March 4, 1968, when a strike was called at the plant which led to a shut-down of construction.

Police from Kingston were called “to keep the Queen’s peace”. The rival groups circled the plant trying to drum up support. Then came that dramatic moment when Michael Manley, NWU organiser, who had raced down from Kingston that morning, proceeded to address the workers. The situation was tense as, only a few yards away, BITU organiser Pearnel Charles was already conducting his own meeting with his supporters outside the gate.

The police braced for action. Suddenly Manley, affectionately known as Joshua, called on his group to follow him into the plant. A union lieutenant raised the hymn Onward, Christian soldiers, the majority of workers took up the refrain, and with Joshua hoisted high on 100 shoulders, the throng marched militantly through the gates.

I have often wondered what the management, holed up inside the site, must have thought when they saw the Christian soldiers with their off-key voices advancing on them. The strategy worked. According to Manley: “It was a risky ploy, but it turned out to be the most dramatic victory of my career.” The NWU eventually topped the polls and won bargaining rights.

So don’t take the new reopening of Alpart for granted. The pioneers did have a gauntlet of labour problems to go through, but three weeks after start-up the operating units were running at about 50 per cent of capacity and meeting all important goals. By mid-1970, production had achieved one million tonnes, in favourable comparison to other plants worldwide that had taken much longer than 18 months to reach design capacity.

The official opening was a study in elegance, stateliness, and professionalism. On Friday March 6, 1970, fanfare and music by the Jamaica Military Band marked the official opening by Hugh Shearer, prime minister, accompanied by Robert Lightbourne, minister of trade and industry; Michael Manley, then Opposition leader; and Kaiser Aluminium officials.

Several hundred guests representing government, business and industry, professional and civic circles, clergy and diplomacy attended the function which lasted from mid-morning till sunset.

Dedicatory prayers were said by the Rt Rev Cyril Swaby, Anglican Bishop of Jamaica; the Most Rev John McEleney SJ, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kingston, and Rev Cleve Grant, vice-president of the Jamaica Council of Churches. The master of ceremonies was Keith Brown, public relations manager for Alpart.

In 1988, it was again reopening time as, after a three-year closure, Kaiser teamed with Hydro Aluminum of Norway to give Alpart a new lease on life. The welcome announcement was made on December 5 by Prime Minister Edward Seaga. The company went on to exceed its bauxite and alumina targets during April to December 1989, making the year, with the exception of its safety performance, a good one for the new company.

Are those good restarts a harbinger for what we can expect from the new Alpart in 2015-16? There is abundant goodwill on the ground and expectations are high. The people have been waiting for a long time and are getting ready to welcome the plant. The treatment of the environment has posed difficulties for the company and the community in the past. But on the other side of the coin there is a background of myriad partnerships developed with St Elizabethans great and small. Alpart walks back into a landscape literally dotted with schools, colleges, playfields, community centres, clinics, roads, housing, small farmers, skills centres, all bearing the stamp of Alpart assistance.

For the third time up and running, this company is proving to be “a hard man fi dead”.

Lance Neita is a public and community relations consultant. Comments to the Observer or to lanceneita@hotmail.com