Noranda Aluminum wants to sell off smelter

Noranda Aluminum is seeking bankruptcy court approval to auction off its primary aluminum business, including the now-idled smelter in southeast Missouri.

The Franklin, Tenn., company said Monday it had filed a motion with the bankruptcy court in St. Louis to set up auction rules to sell off “all, or substantially all,” of its upstream business segment, a vertically integrated aluminum producer.

It includes a bauxite mine in Jamaica, an alumina refinery in Gramercy, La., and the smelter in New Madrid, 160 miles south of St. Louis.

If approved by the bankruptcy court, Noranda said it hoped a sale could be finalized by the end of September.

Noranda had employed some 900 people at the aluminum smelter in Missouri’s Bootheel, and it was Ameren Missouri’s largest electric customer before the plant was idled in March.

The company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February amid low aluminum prices and accidents that idled some of its capacity.

Also Monday, Noranda said it had reached an agreement to auction its flat-rolled aluminum products division, which encompasses three rolling mills in the Southeastern U.S.

Noranda reached an agreement with a subsidiary of Sweden’s Gr?nges AB to serve as a “stalking horse” bidder and set the floor of the auction for the downstream business at $302.5 million

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