Noranda slashing over half of smelter workforce

NEW MADRID, Mo. (AP) – More than half of the 850 employees at a southeast Missouri aluminum plant are being laid off. And the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (bit.ly/1Psqilb) reports that Noranda Aluminum plans to shut down the New Madrid smelter altogether unless its electricity rate is lowered further. The Franklin, Tennessee, company had already seen…