The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Staff Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE Bahamas Mineral Manufacturing Corporation Ltd expects to soon break ground in Freeport for a new mineral processing and manufacturing plant and expects to hire 30 people during the startup phase.

The Bahamian-owned company will be located on Queen’s Highway.

Mitchell Thurston, the president and CEO of BMMC, said the company plans to produce close to 20 million pounds of construction-grade PVC pipes annually for The Bahamas and export markets.

The company will operate from the Island Projects property and process calcium carbonate from conch shells at the site.

Mr Thurston –– who relocated three weeks ago to Grand Bahama from New Providence –– spoke at a recent FNM East Grand Bahama Constituency Association meeting.

“We chose PVC pipes as one of our first products at BMMC because it is essential in every type of construction,” he said.

The Bahamas reportedly imports around eight million pounds of PVC annually.

BMMC will hire people to fill administrative, marketing, statistics and accounting positions. It will hire mostly skilled workers on the manufacturing side.

“When we applied our application was acknowledged almost immediately,” Mr Thurston said of the business application process.

He said the BMMC will sell in bulk to wholesalers and retailers at a competitive price.

He is confident the company can supply the Bahamian market.

“We have the capacity of producing 17m pounds annually,” he said. “So, it means nine million pounds would be available to the export market without diminishing our local supply.”

“We will be having our groundbreaking in a few weeks, and (startup) is looking to be another nine to ten months,” he said.