Noranda Aluminum-New Madrid employees pitch in to help others

NEW MADRID - Word spread rapidly through Noranda Aluminum Co.'s New Madrid plant of damage to one its suppliers by Hurricane Katrina. Just as quickly, the Missouri plant's workers offered their help to Gramercy Alumina, a supplier of alumina in Gramercy, La.

Maintenance and warehouse workers along with human resources employees and security, worked together to collect supplies for those in need at Gramercy. There were donations of water, canned food, clothing, toiletry supplies and toys.

Workers then packaged containers and loaded pallets, some supplied by Beggs Melon Farm, onto trucks offered by Em-Cal, one of the company's trucking companies.

When Noranda's Corporate office learned of the project they joined in. John Bass of the Nashville Aluminum Group Corporate Office delivered a large van full of needed products from employees there.

The truck, loaded Tuesday with 12,140 pounds of supplies, arrived at the Gramercy plant Wednesday.

The Gramercy plant is back to near normal operation, but there remains significant challenges, Chief Operating Officer Peter Kukielski reported to Noranda officials on Tuesday. Communication in the area is still very difficult with limited phone and Internet services. Many areas remain without electricity, and the situation could take weeks to remedy.

Gramercy has been in touch with most of its 500 employees, although some 30 employees had not reported in as of Tuesday. To date, there have been no reported injuries or fatalities, however, several Gramercy employees lost their homes and belongings.

The Gramercy plant on the Mississippi River supplies alumina to Noranda - New Madrid and to Century Aluminum in Kentucky. Shipping of bauxite and barging of refined product has resumed at reduce levels, as monitoring of the waterway transportation continues on a day-to-day basis.

The supplies sent from New Madrid went to Gramercy first, then to the community as a whole.

But that was just the first effort by the industry both for its employees and for others.

Gramercy Alumina, with the support of Falconbridge and Century made a donation of $150,000 to the American Red Cross, and another $50,000 to charities in the Gramercy area. Noranda Aluminum has made an additional contribution, above that of Gramercy, to the Red Cross for $100,000.

Also Noranda- New Madrid's primary aluminum plant conducted a fund drive for the American Red Cross hurricane relief effort through Friday. Employee donations received through Friday were matched by the company and by Wednesday employee donations were in excess of $4,200, a company official said.