Mining and refinery operations at the St. Elizabeth-based Alumina
Partners of Jamaica (ALPART) officially come to a halt on Friday.
Operations at the plant are expected to remain suspended for at least a year and the temporary shutdown will cost approximately 900 permanent employees their jobs.
In March, ALPART announce that it was shutting down its operations, which it said had become necessary in light of the drastic reduction in the price of alumina on the world market.
Alberto Fabrini, ALPART's Managing Director, said then that the halt in operations would allow the plant to prepare for future developments.
And according to Lance Neita, ALPART's Public Relations Manager, a skeletal staff will remain at the plant although most of the workers' positions were made redundant on a phased basis starting the end of March.
"We still have a team of employees in place (and) they will be there up to the end of May. We'll then have the placement of the skeletal team that will be carrying on the maintenance, land rehabilitation and other processes that have to be conducted during the temporary closure. Again, we emphasis that this is a temporary situation," Mr. Neita said.
ALPART fall out worsens
And with ALPART's closure now a harsh reality, residents of several communities surrounding the plant are bracing for a major economic fallout.
The communities rely heavily on the alumina refinery for their economic survival and there are fears that the residents will face an even tougher time while operations are at a standstill.
Lurlyn McFarlane, Member of the ALPART Community Council, told RJR News that the fallout is already being felt.
"It is very rough because the young people now have no work ... they just walk up and down on the road and play games. You have a few who put their (redundancy) money to use, so they have it to pinch for a while but others, especially the casual workers, don't have any money to pinch," she said.
Operations at the plant are expected to remain suspended for at least a year and the temporary shutdown will cost approximately 900 permanent employees their jobs.
In March, ALPART announce that it was shutting down its operations, which it said had become necessary in light of the drastic reduction in the price of alumina on the world market.
Alberto Fabrini, ALPART's Managing Director, said then that the halt in operations would allow the plant to prepare for future developments.
And according to Lance Neita, ALPART's Public Relations Manager, a skeletal staff will remain at the plant although most of the workers' positions were made redundant on a phased basis starting the end of March.
"We still have a team of employees in place (and) they will be there up to the end of May. We'll then have the placement of the skeletal team that will be carrying on the maintenance, land rehabilitation and other processes that have to be conducted during the temporary closure. Again, we emphasis that this is a temporary situation," Mr. Neita said.
ALPART fall out worsens
And with ALPART's closure now a harsh reality, residents of several communities surrounding the plant are bracing for a major economic fallout.
The communities rely heavily on the alumina refinery for their economic survival and there are fears that the residents will face an even tougher time while operations are at a standstill.
Lurlyn McFarlane, Member of the ALPART Community Council, told RJR News that the fallout is already being felt.
"It is very rough because the young people now have no work ... they just walk up and down on the road and play games. You have a few who put their (redundancy) money to use, so they have it to pinch for a while but others, especially the casual workers, don't have any money to pinch," she said.
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