Kaiser Jamaica to resume shipment to U.S. plant

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Jamaica is to resume shipment of bauxite from Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp.'s mine at Runaway Bay, St. Ann to the company's Gramercy, La., plant before the end of October, the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) said.

Dennis Morrison, senior director at the JBI, told Reuters late on Wednesday that the shipment of ore from Kaiser Jamaica Bauxite Co. to Gramercy should commence later this month.

Operations at Kaiser Jamaica were severely affected by the loss of Kaiser's (NYSE:KLU - news) Gramercy plant, which was heavily damaged in a massive explosion in July 1999.

With annual production of 4 million tonnes of bauxite ore, 60 percent of which was traditionally absorbed by the Gramercy plant, Kaiser Jamaica was forced to lay off many of its approximately 480 hourly paid workers in the aftermath of the explosion.

In the wake of the explosion alternate arrangements were made for the shipment of a relatively small amount of ore to Ukraine.

Morrison said the Gramercy plant should receive more than 400,000 tonnes of bauxite from Jamaica by the end of the year.

The Jamaican government earns over US$20 million annually in bauxite levy from the Kaiser Jamaica bauxite operations.