Simplot drops proposed ammonium nitrate plant in northern Nevada

Simplot Minerals & Chemical Group executives from Pocatello, Idaho, flew to Elko on Thursday to make the announcement to area officials.

"We have had for some time a strategic objective of obtaining a basic nitrogen position in the western United States to go with the phosphate position," said Larry Hinderager, Minerals & Chemical Group president. "We still have that objective. We're just looking at other ways to accomplish it."

The project near Wells would have had a profound impact on the economy of the region. Construction would have taken 2 1/2 years and employed up to 1,500 people. When completed, the plant would have employed about 200 full-time workers.

The proposed facility would have produced about 2,040 tons a day, or 734,000 tons a year, of ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Simplot's Pocatello plant produces 100,000 tons a year of phosphate fertilizer.

Northwest Pipeline had committed to spending $91.7 million on a new pipeline that would have supplied natural gas to the project. That would have required construction of about 120 miles of 24-inch pipe, a new compressor station and two new meter stations.

But Hinderager said higher costs for natural gas and lower global ammonia fertilizer prices had substantially changed the project's feasibility since it was announced in early 1997.

Rail transportation, natural gas supplies, water and proximity to a market for industrial products prompted Simplot to choose the site. But after months of studies with natural gas suppliers, the company determined natural gas delivery costs would not make the project feasible.

Unproven water supplies and the need for expanded local electricity capacity also increased costs, Simplot officials said.

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