Western Railroad Discussion > Columbia Falls Aluminum closing for good.

The plant at Conkelley, MT. has been shuttered for some time now and owners announced the plant would not reopen due to the costs of restoring deteoriating infrastructure and aluminum markets.

The Anaconda Copper Company built the plant to take advantage of low hydroelectric rates in northwest Montana which largely disappeared with electric deregulation. GN provided service.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Would you know when the plant opened?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/03/15 23:04 by rrpreservation.

Just another one on a long list of aluminum plants that have closed in the past couple decades.

in the PNW not all that long ago, there used to be aluminum plants at;
Tacoma
Longview
Vancouver
Troutdale
The Dalles
Goldendale
Mead

Now there are just two left operating;
Wenatchee
Ferndale

More history;
http://www.flatheadnewsgroup.com/hungryhorsenews/seven-regional-aluminum-plants-gone/article_9ef13c54-d3dd-11e0-9d88-001cc4c002e0.html

List of Aluminum Smelters around the world;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aluminium_smelters

The few remaining operating plants in the US are old and small compared to most in the world.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I did not realize there were so many aluminum plants in the Northwest. Thank you for the information!

All of the Bauxite for these plants (at least in the modern era) arrived via ship at Columbia River or Puget Sound ports. All of the inland smelters (Columbia Falls, Mead, Goldendale, Wenatchee, The Dalles) received bauxite via port to plant rail moves which represented a significant amount of tonnage (not uncommon to see blocks of 30 or more bauxite loads) - especially for BN. The Alcoa smelter at Wenatchee still gets their bauxite railed in from Longview via Spokane, but even that smelter is running at reduced capacity.

Is bauxite carried by gondola?

funnelfan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Just another one on a long list of aluminum plants
> that have closed in the past couple decades.
>
> in the PNW not all that long ago, there used to be
> aluminum plants at;
> Tacoma
> Longview
> Vancouver
> Troutdale
> The Dalles
> Goldendale
> Mead
>
> Now there are just two left operating;
> Wenatchee
> Ferndale
>
> More history;
> http://www.flatheadnewsgroup.com/hungryhorsenews/s
> even-regional-aluminum-plants-gone/article_9ef13c5
> 4-d3dd-11e0-9d88-001cc4c002e0.html
>
> List of Aluminum Smelters around the world;
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_aluminium_sme
> lters
>
> The few remaining operating plants in the US are
> old and small compared to most in the world.

The Mead one pulled a deal with power sales that they had as I remember way back and shut it down. They sold there power they were buying at a cheeper rate to the grid I think at a higher rate making more money than running the plant. Been a while so details are a little fuzzy but that is about the way it went down.

rrpreservation Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Is bauxite carried by gondola?

Small covered hoppers.

Best regards,

Rob L.

Towards the end at Conkelley the bauxite came in former grain service PS 4427 cu ft. hoppers. It was a very fine white powder.



rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> rrpreservation Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Is bauxite carried by gondola?
>
> Small covered hoppers.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob L.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

fbe Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Towards the end at Conkelley the bauxite came in
> former grain service PS 4427 cu ft. hoppers. It
> was a very fine white powder.
>
>

Nowadays those have become "small" hoppers too.

Best regards,

Rob L.

The article which follows says operations started in 1955 and were mostly continuous until 2005.



rrpreservation Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Would you know when the plant opened?

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

Article from the area newspaper.

http://m.dailyinterlake.com/news/local_montana/columbia-falls-aluminum-co-permanently-closed/article_a06557e8-c1bc-11e4-ab8c-d7b2b1bc3deb.html?mode=jqm

I don't think there was any rolled sheet output. I think there was wire and also ingots of some sort.

The wire may have been household variety at one time but more likely was for HVAC power lines. This is from memory so it might be off a notch or two.

More history.

http://www.cfaluminum.com/cfac_history.htm

Anaconda Aluminum in Kentucky about 1983?

http://www.nytimes.com/1981/01/29/business/anaconda-to-build-big-aluminum-plant.html

I find Anaconda Aluminum also made foil some of which packaged Dentyne gum. There was also a line of aluminum doors for store fronts. There is a book at Amazon called Foil with the company history.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/15 09:27 by fbe.

So here I am thinking 1600-2600 cu ft was small. They might haul over 100 tons but it might take a pair of them to reach the capacity of those grain hoppers. So what do we have now, tiny < 2000 cu ft, not so tiny < 3000 cu ft, small < 4500 cu ft, medium up to 5000 cu ft then large above that like those hauling plastic pellets and such?

I long for the old days when small looked small and big was big.



rob_l Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> fbe Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Towards the end at Conkelley the bauxite came
> in
> > former grain service PS 4427 cu ft. hoppers. It
> > was a very fine white powder.
> >
> >
>
> Nowadays those have become "small" hoppers too.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Rob L.

Posted from Windows Phone OS 7

>
> The Mead one pulled a deal with power sales that
> they had as I remember way back and shut it down.
> They sold there power they were buying at a
> cheeper rate to the grid I think at a higher rate
> making more money than running the plant. Been a
> while so details are a little fuzzy but that is
> about the way it went down.

It is true that during the Enron generated energy crisis (to which many other dishonest companies also contributed) some aluminum companies had such favorable bulk energy rates that they were able to shut down their smelting operations and make more money reselling the energy.

Sadly, we heard a great deal about the investor losses from the tragic time, but much less about the terrible cost to ratepayers some of which we still pay today, and the utility workers that were also victimized.

The first pot run of aluminum from the Anaconda Aluminum Plant was August 15, 1955. I have one of the small commemorative ingots with the date on it.
steeplecab