That Free Gravel Melissa Left Behind? Taking It Could Cost You $1 Million

• Melissa scattered sand, gravel and stone islandwide
• Removing it without a licence is a criminal offence
• Fines run up to $1 million, plus possible jail time
• Buyers of unlicensed material can be prosecuted too

Jamaica’s Mines and Geology Division has warned residents against removing sand, gravel, marl, silt and stone that Hurricane Melissa deposited across the island, stating plainly that doing so amounts to illegal extraction regardless of how the material came to be there. A storm depositing loose quarry material does not change its legal status, the division said in a release, and unauthorised removal remains a criminal offence.

Section 5 of the Quarries Control Act makes it an offence to extract, purchase, stockpile, transport or dispose of quarry material obtained through illicit quarrying. Anyone removing material without a licence faces fines of up to $1 million and possible imprisonment depending on severity, and the warning extends to buyers as well: purchasing material from an unlicensed supplier carries its own penalties for participating in or benefiting from illegal quarrying, regardless of whether the buyer removed the material personally.

The division’s concern is not purely legal formality. Illegal mining can cause riverbank erosion, increased flooding, and damage to roads, bridges and other infrastructure, precisely the kind of secondary damage a country already managing hurricane recovery can least afford, alongside environmental degradation and lost government revenue that would otherwise fund the broader recovery effort. Enforcement is being run jointly with the Jamaica Constabulary Force and is being intensified specifically because storm-scattered material creates exactly the kind of visible, seemingly ownerless opportunity that tempts unauthorised extraction.

For anyone rebuilding after Melissa and eyeing a convenient pile of stone or gravel nearby, the practical guidance is unambiguous: material displaced by the storm belongs to whoever holds the underlying mining rights, not to whoever gets there first with a truck, and sourcing construction material for a rebuild still means going through a licensed supplier, storm or no storm.