October 28, 2025. Hurricane Melissa made landfall in western Jamaica as a Category 5 storm.
By morning, the coastal fishing village of Parottee, St. Elizabeth — eight kilometres south-east of Black River — looked like it had been erased.
Eight months later, the community is still fighting. Not just to rebuild. But to stay.
This is Accompong News. I’m Darius Reed. And this is not a story about a hurricane.
SEGMENT 1 — THE RELOCATION ORDER
Prime Minister Dr. Andrew Holness has declared that Parottee must be relocated.
Speaking at a National Housing Trust ceremony in nearby Malvern last week, the Prime Minister said the cost of rebuilding on the coast would exceed the value of the homes being saved. The Government’s solution: container homes. Inland.
Three fishermen — Ridge Harvey, Anthony Sinclair, and Wesley Bent — said no.
Harvey told the Jamaica Observer: the Government never held a single consultation with residents before making this announcement. They did not sit down and explain. They did not ask. They simply decided.
“The majority of us live off the sea and the pond in Parottee,” Harvey said. “We do tourism and we catch fish. We do not want to relocate.”
Bent has fished those waters since 1975.
Another resident, Nesbeth Bryan-Daley, pointed to something the Government’s announcement did not address. The graves. Melissa disturbed and partially submerged the graves of her relatives in Parottee. “Is here I born and grow,” she said. “I am not leaving.”
The Government’s response? Minister Floyd Green, the MP for St. Elizabeth South Western — the constituency that includes Parottee — said a strategy is being developed. A meeting is planned for “early next year.”
Parottee residents are still waiting.
— SEGMENT BREAK —
SEGMENT 2 — THE GROUND BENEATH PAROTTEE
Now here is what the Government has not been asked to explain.
Parottee sits on the Black River plains — the only documented occurrence of quartz-rich silica sand in Jamaica. United States Geological Survey records show a silica sand deposit in the immediate area covering over 114 acres, with an estimated 820,000 long tons of recoverable reserves.
That sand contains heavy minerals: zircon, rutile, magnetite, titanium-bearing minerals — materials with significant commercial value in glass manufacturing, advanced ceramics, and aerospace applications.
And that is not all.
In May 2024, Barrick Gold — the world’s second-largest gold mining company — announced an exploration earn-in agreement with Geophysx Jamaica, a private company that describes itself as the dominant mineral exploration licence holder in Jamaica.
The agreement gives Barrick access to four thousand square kilometres of consolidated land positions across the island. Geophysx has confirmed it sampled everywhere that wasn’t a protected area.
Bobby Stewart, the founder of Geophysx, told investors at PDAC 2026 — the world’s largest mining convention — that his company has identified rare earth element deposits in Jamaica. Two sources. Unexpected finds.
The south coast of St. Elizabeth — including the Black River plains where Parottee sits — is not a protected area.
SEGMENT 3 — THE CONFLICT OF INTEREST
Here is the question Accompong News is placing on the public record.
The minister responsible for issuing mineral exploration licences in Jamaica is the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining.
That minister is Floyd Green.
Floyd Green is also the sitting Member of Parliament for St. Elizabeth South Western.
The constituency that includes Parottee.
The same Floyd Green who confirmed a “strategy is being developed” for relocating Parottee residents — and who has been the minister overseeing mining licences during the same period that Barrick and Geophysx have been actively identifying targets across the island.
We are not asserting that a mining licence has been issued for the Parottee coastal area. Jamaica’s Mining Cadastre — the public portal where such licences would appear — is currently not accessible. The server is down.
Accompong News has identified the factual basis for a formal Access to Information request to the Mines and Geology Division, directed to Mining Registrar Curtis Brown, requesting all active and pending Exclusive Prospecting Licences and Mining Leases covering the Black River coastal area in St. Elizabeth, issued or applied for since October 2025.
That request will be filed.
CLOSING
What we do know is this.
A fishing community that has lived on Jamaica’s south coast for generations — a community that survived a Category 5 hurricane and began rebuilding with its own hands — has been told by its government that it must leave. Without consultation. Without explanation of what becomes of the land.
The ground beneath Parottee is documented as commercially valuable. The world’s second-largest gold mining company is actively prospecting Jamaica. And the minister who controls the licences is also the MP for the community being cleared.
The Jamaican people deserve answers. The people of Parottee deserve answers now.
From Accompong News — I’m Darius Reed. Stay informed. Stay sovereign.
