June 2018c

76 77 the limestone sector? Cousins: “We’re still about 70 percent export vs. 30 percent domestic, but we expect our do- mestic market will climb dramatically this year. And, hopefully, the exports will climb because of the new capacity we have. The new facility should be up and running this summer – the machinery (brand new U.S.-made equipment) is already being shipped. We are thankful for a close, long-term relationship with J. M. Hu- ber out of Atlanta for food and pharmaceutical applications. For FGD (Flue Gas Desulfurization) material, we have a valuable relationship with Mississippi Lime, supplying a plant in Alabama. Internally, those are the two big ones that have been very important to our success. “We see significant growth opportunities ahead in the domestic and export markets for specification construction aggregates. As far as Lydford Mining is concerned, in addition to plant expansion we have going on now, it’s no longer a secret that by next year we intend to PREFERRED VENDOR n Armstrong Equipment, Inc. www.armstrongequipment.com Armstrong Equipment is a world leading distributor of ROCK CRUSHING equipment based in Miami, Florida since the late 1970’s. The company distributes TEREX products under the brand names of CEDARAPIDS, SIMPLICITY AND CANICA products.With regional offices in Guatemala, Panama and Colombia covering the whole Caribbean, Central and South America. At Armstrong we provide a first class service to our many world leading customers. LYDFORD MINING CO. do an IPO and take the company public; list it on the local stock exchange in Jamaica. “For the industry itself, I see growth simply because, after many years, there is a lot of confidence in our Jamaican economy. It’s very stable at the moment and there is big invest- ment coming in. The availability of limestone is good – certainly for the next hundred years. Al- though we do surface mining and we’re going into the side of a mountain, it’s a pretty small footprint. Once we’re done with that we are required to restore it by law, by putting topsoil back and planting grass and trees. But we’re not there yet, we’re still mining in the same spot after 26 years. To sum it up we’re very opti- mistic about the future. For an in-depth look at Lydford Mining Co. history and past accomplishments, visit our December 2016 feature “Lucrative Limestone” at https://businessviewcaribbean.com/ lydford-mining-co