On June 1, officials celebrated the groundbreaking of Braidy Atlas, a $1.6-billion, 2.5-million-sq-ft greenfield aluminum mill located on 300 acres near Ashland, Ky. Owner Braidy Industries Inc. selected Kiewit as the EPC contractor for the project in mid-August. At the same time, the firm announced that SMS Group will be the project’s equipment provider and EBNER Industrieofenbau GmbH Construction will provide the furnace. The project will be complete in 2020, and Braidy Industries is calling the facility the lowest-cost aluminum mill in the world. Braidy Atlas will be the first green-field aluminum mill in North America in years, according to Braidy Industries. It will also be one of the most technologically advanced rolling mills in the world and the first ever to be fully optimized from the ground up for automotive manufacturing, the company says. During construction, which is now underway, the project is expected to create an estimated 1,000 jobs. Upon completion, the company expects to employ more than 600 full-time staff. Officials expect the mill’s production capacity to be about 300,000 tons of aluminium alloy sheet and plate per year, primarily serving the automotive industry.

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