Red Marly Soil

During the early nineteenth century, one European visitor to Jamaica surveyed the land and used the term “red marly soil” to describe some of the mountainous areas. These landscapes turned out to be stretches of bauxite, a naturally occurring material composed of minerals. These minerals include alumina minerals, iron silicon, titanium, phosphorus, zinc, manganese, and quartz. Bauxite and its alumina derivative are used for production of aluminum. In 1942, bauxite mining commenced in Jamaica. Following World War II, the international demand for aluminum grew enormously. Consequently, Jamaica’s bauxite production expanded rapidly and, by the 1970s, the nation’s annual bauxite output was the largest in the world. ¹