Some workers employed to bauxite company Noranda, travelled from St. Ann / Trelawny, to Kingston today, and staged a protest at the gates of the Jamaica Environment Trust offices.

The upset workers, with placards in hand, voiced their objection to what they deemed a misrepresentation of Noranda’s role in the mining industry, specifically in relation to the much disputed Cockpit Country.

The company has long argued that it is not mining in the cockpit country protected area, but residents of some communities that have been left out of the proposed boundary, mainly the Maroons, have objected to any mining at all, taking place.

This in light of the fact that Noranda has a special mining lease 173 for an area outside the boundary, but in a community residents still consider part of the cockpit country.

Environmentalists, such as JET have also raised concern about the lease being granted, while the environment impact assessment is yet to be completed.

Today, a spokesman for the protesting Noranda workers explained that the company has no intention of mining on the land in dispute.

He claimed that persons who are objecting to Noranda’s operations are unaware of the benefits provided by the company.

He said if Noranda closes operations, hundreds of workers will be affected.

The protestors claimed that some of the persons objecting to the bauxite mining are spreading false news, and that they are being dishonest as they themselves have benefited from Noranda.

The Noranda workers called for the government to finalize the official boundary for the cockpit country.

Meantime, the Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Environment Trust, has expressed surprise at the action taken by some Noranda workers to stage a protest over the cockpit country and mining operations, at the entrance of JET’s in Kingston today.

Suzanne Stanley said under normal circumstances she would have expected that the agency would have been contacted and a meeting arranged  and the  issues and concerns discussed .

She said a representative of the protesting Noranda workers asked to speak with her, and this was facilitated.

Stanley said it’s still not clear what triggered today’s protest at JET’s office.

She said the representative agreed to hold a meeting, at a date to be set, with all the stakeholders.