Aluminum company says preferred site for new smelter is a region of Kentucky hit hard by job losses

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — An aluminum company has singled out northeastern Kentucky as its preferred site for a new aluminum smelter that would bring about 1,000 permanent jobs to an Appalachian region hard hit by the loss of coal and steel production, Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday.

Plans by Century Aluminum Co. to build a smelter that produces dramatically lower emissions will be supported by $500 million from the U.S. Department of Energy. The project has the potential to become the largest investment on record in eastern Kentucky, Beshear said.

“There’s still a lot of steps that we need to take to make this a reality,” the governor said at a news conference. “But this is the first important step.”

The governor is hoping that a state incentives package will help close the deal. He predicted that state lawmakers will provide “the tools that we need” in the closing days of their legislative session.

The company’s president and CEO, Jesse Gary, did not attend the news conference but said in a statement that a “myriad of steps” must still be resolved and that multiple locations are still being evaluated, but he pointed to northeastern Kentucky as the preferred location. Issues still pending include development costs for sites under consideration, utility costs, workforce and incentives, he said.

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