Kaiser Won’T Operate Plant

Kaiser Aluminum announced Wednesday that its Gramercy, La., refinery is unable to operate because of a July 5 explosion.

Now Kaiser is working with its customers to help them find alumina from other sources.

“It is very, very important to us to work with our customers to address their need,” said Kaiser spokesman Scott Lamb.

Six of the 24 employees injured in the explosion remained hospitalized Wednesday. The explosion occurred in the digester area of the plant, where equipment was being operated by employees with “extensive experience,” the company said.

“Obviously, this is a very sad and unfortunate event,” said Ray Milchovich, president and chief operating officer of Kaiser. “We are taking steps to identify the cause and hope to learn how to prevent such an incident from ever occurring again.”

Operations at Kaiser’s other plants, including the Mead refinery and the Trentwood rolling mill in Spokane, were not affected by loss of product from the Gramercy plant. The alumina for those operations comes from Australia.