Studley Park Enterprises gets blasting licence:

Chairman of Studley Park Enterprises Ltd (SPEL) Ashworth Jack has confirmed the quarry now has a blasting licence.

In May, THA Secretary of Infrastructure, Quarries and Urban Development Trevor James, during a post-executive council media briefing, accused the Government of stymieing development in Tobago, through what he believes was its reluctance to issue a blasting permit and mining licence for operations at SPEL.

Speaking on the Tobago Updates morning show on Wednesday, Jack said the licence has been granted and the company has been blasting, but there is a new challenge, to do with export licences.

“If Tobago is to meet its full potential, then every avenue for productivity, every avenue to be able to generate income must be explored to its fullest potential. As it is now, SPEL is one of those areas that can...make a major difference to the Tobago economy.”

He said that is so because in the region, including Trinidad, a number of changes are taking place in infrastructure and demand for rock from the quarry is extremely high.

But, he complained, “There are a number of setbacks that we would face as a result of not having an export licence. The demand for material before the end of this year, ranging for a three-year period, is over nine million tons...At an average of $22 per ton, it works out to $205 million – that’s US dollars.

“If you do the further breakdown into TT$ at 6.8 (to US$1), we’re talking about $1.4 billion – and this is up to three weeks ago, because the new request, we have not yet put together.”

He was asked whether the quarry could meet that demand.

“Yes and no – yes in that the material is available. One of the problems that Studley Park have is that we have aging infrastructure.

“But if you have a $205 million request over a two-to-three-year period, it means that you can purchase new equipment and be able to pay for it in an extremely short space of time.”

He said with the country already in a US-dollar crunch, this would help the foreign-exchange situation.

“Once allowed the issue of the export licence, we are in a position to radically change the Tobago economy.”

But he said the licence is being hindered by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The last thing we heard is that there was an issue with the paying of royalties, but that could not be the problem, because the payment of royalties is dependent on an audit by the Ministry of Energy, who have not yet sent a figure for the audit.

“It cannot be that you’re telling me you have power over the audit, but you can’t give me an export licence because I didn’t pay royalties (without telling me what the) royalties were.”

He said an export licence alone was not the sole issue.

“We want to get an export licence that covers a certain period.” At present, he said, export licences were only granted for a single bargeload of material.

So if, as is the case, there is a request for 9.5 tonnes of material, “It means that we would have a barge turning around in Studley Park at least six days a week, and in some cases more than one barge six days a week.

“But to do this, imagine,you have to apply for an export licence every day in order to get one, whereas there is an omnibus licence that allows you a year and two years’ export.

“We’ll agree to settle for a year at a time, but there must be some predictability.”