The following comment is among several that can be found at www.themontserratreporter.com on the current important issue of ‘Sand Mining’ considered to be as the writer says, a “a resource of potential revenue.”
Comment –
I attended the Meeting of the Minds the other evening and was struck by all the references to “Resources”. Right now, Montserrat has two major resources. One is the potential revenue from sand mining. The other is residential tourism. Both resources bring money from outside Montserrat.
The key word seems to be “potential” revenue from sand mining. Promising, but still potential. No one really knows how profitable this venture will be. A guess is it will be very profitable for the miners only if they are allowed to operate in a haphazard and unregulated way. Another guess is, by the time the profits are divied up between the land owners, government, fuel suppliers, creditors, maintenance people, employees, etc., there won’t be much profit left.
If mining is regulated to take into account environmental issues, reasonable hours of operation, compatibility with local laws, etc. will the profitability still be worthwhile?
One example of this is the CM’s announcement that berms will be built to shield the community from noise and dirt. To properly construct a berm of this size, the cost would be more than the cost of building a road to Foxes Bay. It will probably take longer to build than the road as well. Another is, how profitable will the operation be with limited hours?
As with most things, it all boils down to money. Another way of looking at the situation could be profitability. I believe the sand miners could make more profit operating out of Foxes Bay. They could operate the way they want to, without pesky restrictions like hours and weight limits, they wouldn’t need to build a costly berm and would avoid many regulations that would be enforced if they located in Isles Bay.
Considering this, does it really make sense to destroy one reliable resource to benefit an untested one? We need to take advantage of all the resources including sand mining, but it should be profitable for the miners as well.
