NATCHEZ, Miss.—Delta-Energy Group L.L.C.. a scrap tire resource recovery company, will locate its operations at the former International Paper facility in Natchez.
Delta-Energy and Natchez Inc., the economic and community development agency for Natchez and Adams County, have reached agreement for Delta-Energy to invest $45 million in the new plant, according to a Feb. 10 news release from Natchez Inc.
The deal includes the purchase of a building and 30 acres of a 478-acre industrial site along the Mississippi River for $3.75 million, according to the news release.
Natchez Inc. expects the deal to close within the next 60 to 90 days, said a spokesman for Natchez. When the plant is fully operational, it should employ 91 workers, Natchez said.
Founded in 2001 as part of the RJ Lee Group, Delta-Energy spun off from RJ Lee as a privately held, independent company in 2006, according to the Delta-Energy website.
Using its patented DEPolymerization process, Delta-Energy became in 2007 the first company to commercialize carbon black made from recycled scrap rubber, the website said.
Delta-Energy claims that its D-E Black products have properties comparable to thermal and furnace carbon blacks.
“We design, produce and own the plants we make to ensure we are the premier global supplier of recovered carbon black-based products,” the company website states. “We understand the level of our success depends on making products that meet market performance requirements.”
Delta-Energy expects to open its first production line in Natchez sometime this summer, according to William Cole, Delta-Energy vice president of product management. It plans to open other production lines there, Cole said, but he declined to say when.
Delta-Energy dismantled an existing production facility in Berthold, N.D., and plans to install that equipment in Natchez, according to Cole.
The Berthold plant went onstream in 2008 and operated through 2012, but Delta-Energy decided it needed to relocate operations to be closer to customers and supply, he said.
Delta-Energy also abandoned plans in 2008-09 to establish a facility in Greene County, Pa., because of the recession at that time, Cole said.
The company plans eventually to build other plants in North America and abroad, he said, but it is not revealing the timetable for those plans.