USA: International Malting Co. started malt manufacture in north Great Falls

International Malting Co. (IMC) has begun manufacturing malt at its new plant north of Great Falls this week, Great Falls Tribune communicated on September 28. "We hope to be at 100 % capacity by mid-November," said Mark Black, a manager for International Malting, which is based in Milwaukee, Wis.

Workers this week moved some 475 tons of barley into the US$70 million plant. In about a week the barley will be converted into malt.

The company expects the plant will employ 35 people and use about 12 million bushels (261.3 thousand metric tonnes) of barley annually. International Malting has contracts with about 130 grain growers. The company built the plant to help satisfy demand for malt in the western United States and overseas. Customers include brewers, distillers and food producers.

Plans to build the plant in the Great Falls area were announced in 2003 by then-Gov. Judy Martz. Now the Great Falls Development Authority and city officials are looking at possible uses for other sites near the malting plant, an area they describe as a "commodity park." A study has been commissioned.

Part of the commodity park's appeal may lie in a US$4 million rail spur connecting the International Malting plant to the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway system.

International Malting largely paid for the spur. Now city officials are working to sell about $2.6 million in industrial revenue bonds to repay the company and secure the line's use for future tenants of the commodity park.

City Manager John Lawton said that "everything is moving forward" on financing for the rail spur.

The malting plant is not finished, but its completed first phase allows barley to be washed and placed in a large vessel, where the grain's moisture level is boosted. Then, over a few days, enzymes in the barley kernels are activated. The next steps involve moving the barley to germination vessels and later to kilns, for drying. "It will be a final product then," Black said. "We've got to test and analyse the malt first to determine which of our customers it will be appropriate for," he said.

30 September, 2005