Bauxite turnaround uphill challenge - BIDCO head Guyana Chronicle January 3, 2000 TURNING around the local bauxite industry is still possible but the task has been made more difficult with international convulsions in the sector last year, according to Managing Director and Chairman of the Bauxite Industry Development Company (BIDCO), Mr J.F.I `Jim' Blackman. In a New Year's message to employees of the Linden Mining Enterprise (Linmine), he said that while the ray of hope of the bauxite industry making a turnaround still remains, the final steps to getting out of the tunnel are no longer on flat terrain and it has become an uphill challenge. The entire bauxite/alumina/aluminium industry has been "in almost violent flux" over the past several months as the Kaiser alumina plant at Gramercy exploded putting it out of operation for the remainder of 1999 and part of 2000, Blackman noted. To make matters worse, he said, a series of takeover bids by Guyana's major metallurgical `A' Grade (MAZ) and calcined bauxite customers have left the entire industry in a state of flux which is unlikely to stabilise before the middle of this year. Blackman pointed out that with MAZ, on the international scene Alcoa has taken over Reynolds, Alcan has taken over Pechiney and Alusuisse and the Trinidad smelter was put on hold. He said that the Green firm was taken over by Harbison Walker which in turn is being taken over by Narco and these are all calcined bauxite customers. According to the top industry official, this state of flux has caused major strategic investors who showed interest in participating in a 60 per cent acquisition of Linmine and Bermine (the Berbice Mining Enterprise) to withdraw from the bidding process. This has resulted in the uphill task which Linmine particularly now faces with its limited financial resources. Blackman noted that it takes less energy to run on flat terrain than to go up the slope on which the ray of hope now sits and to achieve such heights would call for extra power. Unfortunately, Linmine has no resources to purchase the extra power to propel itself to the top of the slope and to do so utilising the same power would mean losing "some excess weight" to make the firm "slimmer, lighter, more efficient and healthier" to better meet the challenges of becoming competitive in the new millennium when the industry recovers, he said. Blackman said the first six months of this year are likely to be difficult but with the involvement of the European Union in the development of Linden and other parts of Region Ten later this year, greater opportunities would result pending the revitalisation of the industry by strategic investors. He urged all in the bauxite industry and communities to spend on only their needs, not their wants until the industry recovers. (JOE CHAPMAN) A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples