NORANDA UNDERTAKES $56 MILLION PROJECT; PLANT WILL INCREASE ALUMINUM PRODUCTION

MARSTON -- Noranda Aluminum Inc. will spend more than $56 million over the next two years to increase aluminum production at its plant in St. Jude Industrial Park.

"We're looking into the future," said Steve Heddle, president of the plant's primary products division. "This project represents an important step toward assuring the competitiveness of our aluminum reduction plant well into the next millennium."

The primary products division will modernize the carbon anode production facilities, said Heddle. The project will increase Noranda's aluminum production capacity by about 15 percent, or 73 million pounds a year."

The project will involve a conversion to new single-piece technology and provide more amperage to the plant's three potlines, said Heddle.

The plant employs 1,170 people from Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas. It currently produces about 220,000 tons of aluminum per year.

The plant has been in production for more than 25 years. The first pot went on line at the $240 million plant in 1971. A second line was added in the mid-1970s, and a third line was added in 1983 at a cost of $240 million.

Noranda Aluminum, a wholly owned subsidiary of Noranda Inc., of Toronto, Canada, produces aluminum for sale throughout the U.S., Canada, and Mexico.

Noranda and the adjacent power generation plant operated by Associated Electric Co., take up more than half of the 4,200-acre industrial park owned by the city of New Madrid.