Two company towns on opposite sides of North America encapsulate the hopes and fears of communities that depend on the aluminium industry.
Alcoa mothballed its smelter in Badin, North Carolina, in 2002, 84 years after it started production there. The company cited escalating energy and labour costs at a time that it was intensifying its search for lower-cost facilities in other parts of the world, such as Iceland, Brazil and Australia.
