Mining Minister Robert Montague has lauded the Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited (JBM) for their innovation and investment in education that’s expected to shape the future of the service industry. This as he notes thousands of jobs will be provided in short order in the sector and even more opportunities are being mined in the medium to long term.

Being Jamaica’s largest foreign exchange earner, the mining industry aims to spread its impact on the country’s sustainable development.

The Jamaica Bauxite Mining Limited announced the official opening of its new building on Friday in St Mary. Speaking at the ceremony Minister of Transport and Mining Robert Montague says the business of the JBM is larger than many know.

JBM Managing Director Donna Marie Howe notes that there have been partnerships with the private sector and government entities that will provide one thousand jobs.

Minister Montague says educational institutes will prove more critical in a bid to industrialize mining and that an industrial revolution is expected to shape the future, adding that the lands available after mining will be used for a castor oil project.

He says the deal has already been signed with a bio-diesel company that supplies the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC) with the fuel.