Jamaica, the Caribbean’s largest bauxite producer, is turning back to Africa 21 years after promising to help Ghana build an alumina refinery, as the two countries move to revive a decades-old bauxite and alumina trade relationship through a proposed $60 million deal.
Caribbean’s largest bauxite producer moves to revive $60 million aluminium trade with one of Africa’s biggest bauxite holders
- Jamaica and Ghana are negotiating to revive their decades-old bauxite and alumina trading relationship with a potential $60 million deal.
- The agreement aims to help Ghana capture more value from its bauxite resources and reduce dependence on imported alumina.
- The deal involves Jamaican bauxite being refined in Louisiana, USA, then shipped as alumina to Ghana for aluminium production.
- This agreement could significantly expand bilateral trade and support Ghana’s long-standing goal of creating an integrated aluminium industry.
Ghana has vast bauxite reluminium industry dependent on imported alumina
A proposed $60 million deal with Jamaica could help bridge that gap while reviving a decades-old trade relationship between the two countries.
Donna Marie Howe, Managing Director of Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited (JBM), toldJIS News that discussions are already under way and could soon lead to a formal agreement.
The talks began in March 2026 after representatives from Ghana’s state-owned bauxite sector visited Jamaica to explore renewed cooperation.
Under the proposed arrangement, Jamaican bauxite would be refined at the Gramercy facility in Louisiana in the United States before the resulting alumina is shipped to Ghana for aluminium production.
“We started talking about how we can rejuvenate getting some more bauxite refined in our Louisiana plant in Gramercy, so it can be shipped to Ghana, so they can do the production of aluminium there,” Howe said.
She said the initiative has the backing of Ghana’s President John Dramani Mahama, who recently completed a four-day state visit to Jamaica.
“The timeline for this is imminent. It is for us now then to just build on those discussions and transition that into an actual agreement,” Howe said.
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Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Jamaica, Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith and President John Mahama of GhanaBI Africa
The proposed deal would build on an existing trade relationship rather than create a new market for Jamaica in Ghana.
In 2024, Ghana imported about 26,250 tonnes of Jamaican alumina worth $11.1 million, compared with nearly 30,900 tonnes worth $13.1 million for Egypt and about 11,600 tonnes valued at $4.1 million for Cameroon.
The Ghana-Jamaica relationship, however, stretches much further back.
In July 2005, then Jamaican Prime Minister P. J. Patterson announced that Jamaica would assist Ghana in developing its own alumina refinery following talks with then Ghanaian President John Kufuor.
At the time, the Jamaican government said Ghana had already been consuming Jamaican alumina for about 30 years, placing the commercial relationship between the two countries as far back as the 1970s.
That relationship is closely tied to Ghana’s long-running ambition to build an integrated aluminium industry.
Founding President Kwame Nkrumah envisioned a system powered by the Volta River project, under which Ghana would mine its own bauxite, refine it into alumina and produce aluminium domestically.
More than six decades later, that vision remains incomplete.
Ghana has historically exported raw bauxite while importing the alumina needed to supply the Volta Aluminium Company, or VALCO, smelter in Tema.
The state-owned Ghana Integrated Aluminium Development Corporation (GIADEC), which oversees the development of the country’s integrated aluminium industry, says all bauxite currently mined by the Ghana Bauxite Company is exported, while VALCO relies on imported alumina for production.
The Awaso mine produces about one million tonnes of bauxite a year, but Ghana still lacks a commercial refinery, forcing some of its ore to be processed abroad in countries including Jamaica, Scotland and Canada before alumina is imported for domestic aluminium production.
Ghana has since established GIADEC to develop an integrated value chain covering bauxite mining, alumina refining, aluminium smelting and downstream manufacturing.
The proposed $60 million Jamaica deal would therefore support Ghana’s immediate alumina needs while the country continues efforts to build domestic refining capacity and process more of its bauxite at home.
