REC Silicon expansion expected

By The Standard Staff - 07/26/2007

A newspaper in Moses Lake, Wash., has reported REC Silicon is investing at least one-third of a $320 million expansion in Butte.

A silane production unit, the largest part of the project, will be built in Moses Lake, according to the Columbia Basin Herald.

Officials at REC Silicon’s Butte plant, 119140 Rick Jones Way, didn’t return phone calls Wednesday seeking comment. People at the plant in Moses Lake also didn’t return phone messages.

“We haven’t heard anything official (from REC),” Butte Local Development Co. executive director Jim Smitham said.

Chief Executive Paul Babb also said REC didn’t publicly release information.

“I wouldn’t want to speak for them,” Babb said. “I can’t really comment.” REC, or Renewable Energy Corp., formerly ASiMI, makes polysilicon for alternative energy and is located in the Tax Increment Financing Industrial District west of Butte.

Nearly two years ago, the Norway-based REC bought ASiMI’s plants in Butte and Moses Lake from Komatsu.

A story earlier this year reported an estimated 250 people are employed at the Butte plant.