Jamaica Rare Earth Project™ – Strategic Partnership for the Future of Critical Minerals
The Jamaica Rare Earth Project represents a transformative public–private partnership (PPP) opportunity to recover valuable critical minerals—including scandium, gallium, and rare earth elements—from over 135 million tonnes of legacy bauxite residue, commonly known as "red mud." This initiative not only turns an environmental liability into a powerful economic and strategic asset but also advances the interests of Jamaica, the United States, and allied industrial partners.
For Jamaica, the project delivers long-term benefits: environmental remediation of toxic bauxite residue sites, high-value job creation, new export revenues, and positioning the nation as a global hub for advanced materials.
For the United States, it secures a non-Chinese supply chain of critical minerals essential to defense, aerospace, and renewable-energy technologies—directly supporting national security and industrial resilience.
For industry partners, it creates profitable pathways to scale zero-waste extraction technologies, while supplying global markets with rare earths and critical materials necessary for next-generation manufacturing.
To succeed, this effort requires high-level diplomacy and sustained engagement. Building close working relationships with the U.S. Department of State, Department of Defense, Government of Jamaica, Ministry of Mining, and the Jamaica Bauxite Institute (JBI) will ensure the alignment of policy, financing, and regulatory frameworks.
The Jamaica Rare Earth Project exemplifies how innovation, diplomacy, and partnership can deliver a win-win outcome: strengthening allied supply chains, cleaning up the environment, and generating broad-based prosperity.
“Securing critical minerals and rare earth elements for the USA and Western-friendly companies—building resilient, non-Chinese supply chains through innovation, partnerships, and sustainable development in Jamaica, focusing on alumina and the management of bauxite residue, and beyond.”
Jamaica holds an extraordinary opportunity to transform 135 million tonnes of legacy bauxite residue—commonly known as red mud—into a strategic resource for the USA and companies friendly to Western interests. This bauxite residue contains concentrations of scandium, gallium, and rare earth elements, which are critical minerals vital for aerospace, defense, renewable energy, and advanced technologies. By deploying next-generation, zero-waste extraction technologies, the project converts an environmental liability into a critical asset, ensuring a secure, sustainable supply chain independent of China. This initiative positions Jamaica as a global leader in the recovery of critical minerals while delivering economic growth, environmental remediation, and strategic security benefits across the region.
Andrew Wyatt
Executive Director & Co-Founder, Rare Earth Advisors, LLC
Andrew Wyatt is the Executive Director and co-founder of Rare Earth Advisors, LLC (REA), a government affairs firm focused on securing critical minerals for the USA and Western friendly allies. REA represents a consortium of companies that are pioneering zero-waste recycling technologies to recover scandium, gallium, and other rare earth elements from bauxite residue and related industrial streams. Anchored by alumina and bauxite supply chain operations, the firm’s mission is to establish a secure and resilient critical materials supply chain that is independent of Chinese influence—supporting U.S. and allied industrial resilience, national security, and economic competitiveness.
With over two decades of experience in government affairs, Andrew has cultivated high-level relationships at both the U.S. Department of State and the DoD. He began his policy career in 2004 as president of a national trade association and has testified before the U.S. House Natural Resources and Judiciary Committees. In 2013, he joined Vitello Consulting, where he advised clients on federal and international policy related to captive wildlife, hunting, conservation, and the ivory trade.
His deep ties to Jamaica date back to the late 1990s, where he has led initiatives in coffee, water, and wildlife conservation. Notably, he was involved in opposing the Chinese government’s proposed industrial harbor at the Goat Islands in Portland Bight, thereby safeguarding one of Jamaica’s most important ecological and strategic sites from control by the CCP. Andrew's relationships in Jamaica extend to the highest levels of government leadership.
Through Rare Earth Advisors, Andrew leverages his expertise in policy, conservation, and enterprise to advance a public-private partnership model that aligns the interests of Western friendly governments, industry, and communities. His vision is to transform environmental liabilities into strategic assets—remediating Jamaica’s red mud sites while securing critical minerals essential for the future of the USA and its Western allies.
Brigadier General John Adams, U.S. Army (Retired)
Director of Strategic Policy, Rare Earth Advisors, LLC
General John Adams is REA’s Strategic Policy Director. A former Army aviator and intelligence officer, he aligns national-security priorities with industrial-base execution—bringing deep supply-chain expertise and practical experience in critical minerals, including rare earth elements, to accelerate JamREP’s mission and strengthen U.S.–Jamaica partnerships.
General Adams retired from the U.S. Army in 2007 after more than three decades of service. His final post was Deputy U.S. Military Representative to NATO’s Military Committee in Brussels, where he worked with allies and Partnership for Peace members to shape defense policy recommendations for the Alliance’s political leaders.
On September 11, 2001, while serving in the Office of the Secretary of Defense as Deputy Director for European Policy, he took part in immediate disaster-recovery efforts at the Pentagon and coordinated international support for the U.S. diplomatic and military response. He is a veteran of Operation Desert Storm (1991) and Operation Guardian Assistance in Rwanda (1996), and served extensively across the Balkans (1998–2003), with additional duty in Iraq and Afghanistan (2004). As a U.S. defense attaché in Belgium, Rwanda, Croatia, and South Korea, he advised ambassadors and senior Washington officials on political-military issues and represented the United States with foreign governments.
A Washington, D.C.–area native, General Adams earned his Regular Army commission as a Distinguished Military Graduate from North Carolina State University. His career as a Foreign Area Officer, Military Intelligence Officer, and Army Aviator included nearly eighteen years of overseas assignments. As an aviator, he logged more than 700 pilot-in-command hours in fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, including the UH-1D, OV/RV-1D Mohawk, and RU-21 Guardrail.
General Adams authored Remaking American Security (Alliance for American Manufacturing, 2013) and continues to publish, testify before Congress, and brief senior leaders on the defense industrial base and the importance of rare earths. He has taught national security policy at the University of Arizona South and English at West Point. He holds master’s degrees in International Relations (Boston University), English (University of Massachusetts), and Strategic Studies (U.S. Army War College), and completed the U.S.–Russia Flag Officers’ Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School. He is proficient in French, Dutch, German, and Croatian.
His awards include the Defense Superior Service Medal (with Oak Leaf Cluster), Bronze Star Medal, Army Aviator Badge, Parachute Badge, and Ranger Tab. He is a Distinguished Graduate of both the Military Intelligence Officer Basic Course and the Officer Rotary Wing Aviator Course, and a recipient of the Military Intelligence Corps’ Knowlton Award and the Director of Central Intelligence’s Exceptional Human Intelligence Collector Award (as a member of the Great Lakes Crisis Team). General Adams is also knowledgeable about the impacts of bauxite residue on the supply chain of critical minerals.