Braidy Industries will receive a four million dollar grant from the Abandoned Mine Lands fund, established to revitalize former coal mine areas. The Herald Leader reports the cost of the mill in northeastern Kentucky has increased by at least 300 million dollars since April last year.
The grant will be used to build a grid of concrete support piers and columns at the site of the proposed mill. Braidy has promised 600 jobs with an average annual salary of 70-thousand dollars and plans to open its doors in 2020.
The direct state investment makes all Kentucky taxpayers partial owners of the company, and the state can request repayment if the mill fails to invest one billion dollars in the facility by 2020, or fails to have at least half of its employees working in Kentucky.
Documents filed by Braidy last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission showed the company still needs about 500 million dollars before it can begin construction. The state also approved ten million dollars in tax incentives for Braidy.
