Metals Manufacturing
The Aluminum Corporation of America (Alcoa) opened this central Washington aluminum plant in 1952, one of several smelters the company operates in the United States. Washington produces more aluminum than any other state, a situation which started in World War Two when aircraft companies like...
One of two copper smelters owned by Asarco (the other is in Hayden, Arizona, closer to the company's mines in Arizona), El Paso has a 828-foot-tall stack, at this 123-acre plant site. When operating at full capacity the plant employs over 400 people. Phelps Dodge also operates a copper refinery in...
One of the last operating lead smelters in the country, the East Helena Plant was finally shut down in April 2001. The 141-acre plant, which opened in 1888, produced around 750 tons of lead bullion per day, as well as the marketable by-product sulfuric acid. The plant employed around 260 people,...
The legendary steel mill in Bethlehem is one of the most dramatic abandoned industrial landscapes in the country, and portions of the 200 acre complex will soon be developed into the National Museum of Industrial History', an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution, scheduled to open by 2005....
This large industrial plant in the remote Sevier Desert of western Utah is one of the only sources of concentrated beryllium in the world. The plant is a mill and finishing facility for beryllium, a high-strength, lightweight metal used in military, aerospace, and medical industries. The ore for...
The Phelps Dodge Mining Company's refinery in El Paso is a large refiner of electrolytic copper. At this plant, which employs about 280 people, the copper is refined and formed into a continuous-cast rod, which can then be turned into electric wire and cable.
A major aluminum facility, Goldendale makes extrusion billets (typically solid columns of aluminum), and other forms of raw aluminum for consumer products, munitions, and industrial applications. Mined alumina, the source of aluminum, is shipped here from India, Australia, and Jamaica. The plant,...
This aluminum smelter near Ferndale is the nation's largest aluminum smelter, and is the Northwest's largest single consumer of electricity. The plant covers 300 acres and employs 1,150 people. During California's energy crisis of 2000/2001, the facility was paid not to operate, so that the energy...
This plant opened at the start of World War II, and like the other aluminum plants in Washington, furnished aluminum to Boeing and the rest of the aircraft industry. It now employs around 900 people. Alumina, the material used to make aluminum, arrived by ship from Australia, and was off-loaded at...
Cleveland Works is one of the largest raw steel mills still operating in the United States. The Works makes more than half of the raw steel produced by LTV Steel, the nation's third largest steelmaker. It employs around 4,000 people, and has an annual capacity of 5 million tons. LTV's other raw...