Two and a half years after it was announced and 19 months after it broke ground, Allegheny Technologies USD 460 million facility in Rowley, Utah, US will begin producing titanium sponge immediately. Market conditions slowed the construction timetable and start of production at the plant originally planned for the end of 2008. The company hired the majority of its 100 employees in the third quarter of 2009 and has spent the past three months training them for specific technical assignments. The plant will use magnesium from nearby US Magnesium and combine it with titanium tetrachloride, brought in by rail, to produce top-grade titanium sponge. A byproduct of the production, magnesium chloride, will be returned to US Magnesium.