ZANESVILLE — A new plant being built in Muskingum County could bring 100 permanent full-time jobs to Southeast Ohio.
The plant, AMG Vanadium, purchased 154 acres at the Eastpointe Business Park in Zanesville. The construction of the plant will create 500 to 600 temporary construction jobs, but there will be 100 plant positions available when the facility is finished in 2021.
The first phase of construction will begin at the end of summer and end in the second half of 2020. The second phase will be completed in 2021.
The company is a provider of spent catalyst recycling and metal reclamation services. This will be the second facility built in Muskingum County, with the first built in 1952 in Cambridge.
“We are building, essentially a very similar facility to our existing plant in Cambridge,” said Colleen Heacock, vice president of organizational development and corporate affairs for AMG Vanadium.
She said the catalyst is solid waste generated in the production process at oil refineries when they refine crude oil to remove impurities from the initial feed stock.
“We take the waste product called spent catalyst and recycle and reclaim the metals, converting it into a salable product,”she said.
The primary salable product they convert is ferrovanadium, an alloy sold to the steel industry.
“It improves the strength of steel by 20 to 40 percent,”Heacock said. “It’s also used by the U.S. Department of Defense in military applications.”
The Ohio Air Quality Development Authority will finance the construction of the plant by issuing up to $350 million in tax exempt bonds. The new roasting and ferroalloy production facility will enable the company to double its resid spent catalyst recycling capacity and annual ferrovanadium and ferronickel-molybdenum production, according to the company.
Andy Kuhn, executive director of the Southeastern Ohio Port Authority, said he’s not sure how many jobs there will be for people of Washington County, but there could be some for those in the northern part of the county.
“Although, anytime there are new jobs created there is opportunity for persons who have skills and are willing to travel,” he said. “We are at near full employment nationwide and if there are persons in the Monroe County, Noble County, Morgan County sets who want to commute, there would certainly be opportunity.”
Heacock said with the 100 new production and management jobs, there will be certain positions where previous experience will be important, such as with skilled trades.
“For general production job opportunities, experience in manufacturing is helpful, but we will absolutely train,” she said.
Kuhn said the business park where the plant will be built has added a significant number of jobs to Southeast Ohio.
According to the Zanesville Muskingum Port Authority, Dollar General and AVON Products have built distribution centers there, as well as manufacturing facilities for Bimbo Baker and Bilco Company. Halliburton Energy Services became the third Fortune 500 company to locate in the park.
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