ABOVE: The Green Plains plant in Fairmont on Thursday afternoon. Employees learned this day that the plant would be closing.

FAIRMONT– On Thursday employment at Green Plains in Fairmont ended for roughly 60 employees.

Green Plains is a leading ag technology using innovative processes to transform annually renewable crops into sustainable, high value ingredients. Locally, it’s had a plant at 1125 Bixby Road since 2014 when it bought out another plant which had been idle since 2012.

Repeated calls to management, both at the local office and corporate office, based in Omaha, Nebraska, went unanswered, but several local employees verbally confirmed that they were unaware of the closure until Wednesday, Jan. 15. The Fairmont site officially closed as of 7 p.m. on Jan. 16.

Several local leaders in the Fairmont community also said they were unaware of the closure until Thursday. It’s unclear whether the plant will reopen in the future.