Ormet stays mum on Kaiser Mead

Ormet Corp., a Hannibal, Ohio-based aluminum producer, still hasn't said—after three extensions of a tentative purchase agreement— whether it will buy the shuttered former Kaiser Aluminum Corp. Mead Works smelter property north of Spokane.

The company announced last week, though, that it plans to restart two idled potlines at its Hannibal smelting facility, where it had said earlier it envisioned using carbon anodes that it would produce at the Mead complex.