Kaiser gets court approval for sale of Gramercy, La. plant, assets

By Jeff Pines

Washington, July 19 - Kaiser Aluminum Corp. obtained court approval to sell its Gramercy, La. alumina refinery and its 49% stake in the St. Ann bauxite mine in Jamaica for $23 million to joint ventures between Noranda Inc. and Century Aluminum Co., the two companies said.

Noranda and Century each own half of Gramercy Alumina LLC and St. Ann Bauxite Ltd.

The government of Jamaica owns the other 51% of the St. Ann mine.

Noranda runs an aluminum reduction smelter in New Madrid, Ky., which produces 250,000 tons a year. The smelter gets its alumina from the Gramercy alumina refinery due to the Mississippi River location of the New Madrid smelter and the Gramercy refinery.

The Gramercy refinery can produce 1.25 million tons of alumina per year. Noranda and Century each buy up to 500,000 tons of alumina per year for their respective primary aluminum reduction plants in New Madrid and Hawesville, Ky.

The Gramercy refinery was extensively modernized between 2000 and 2002. The related St. Ann bauxite mining and processing operations in Jamaica began in 1967 and produce about 4 million tons per year.

Kaiser filed for bankruptcy on Feb. 12, 2002. The Chapter 11 case number for the aluminum company is 02-10429.

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