Unless "old" Remington wrecked or ran the part for making explosive mixtures for primers into disrepair to the point of requiring total replacement, this document suggests the Lonoke AR facility had the ability to manufacture explosive mixtures for primers in 2012 and guessing that should still be the case except as I noted.
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At the facility, Remington manufactures sporting ammunition, including shotshell, centerfire, rimfire ammunition and ammunition components. Manufacturing operations include metal forming, metal finishing, electroplating, plastic processing, ammunition loading and assembly operations, explosive manufacturing for primers, and primer assembly operations."
Second page, under Findings of Fact, first sentence under item number 2. I didn't see much point in proceeding further.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjAEegQIBxAB&usg=AOvVaw2t7TpxgxnUA56hyQzlGstd
From a fundamental chemical process safety standpoint, that makes perfect sense vs shipping completed priming compound mixtures from point of chemical manufacturing to point of metallic primer assembly manufacturing.
I know of some other process chemicals that were previously shipped around and stored in bulk, and that practice changed here in the US starting in the 1980's. A common example is ethykene oxide, used by our military along with propylene oxide, for thermobaric weapons including the Mother Of All Bombs (MOAB), which is quite dramatic.
The typical use of ethylene oxide and propylene oxide is as a chemical intermediate, a stepping stone along the way, such as a step in manufacturing ethylene glycol and propylene glycol for the primary ingredient in modern motor vehicle antifreeze solutions. These days the equipment to make those glycols is part of the same chemical plant physical complex as the equipment that manufacturers those oxide precursors but such was not always the case.
The university I obtained my Bachelors degree from was located in Kingsville, TX and a chemical plant was (and still is) outside nearby Bishop, TX. During a student society field trip to that plant in the late 1980's, I asked about a curious area that looked somewhat like a military bunker. It was explained that was now decommissioned storage tanks buried under multiple layers of concrete and earth that was previously used to store ethylene oxide manufactured at some other facility owned by that same company that was transported by railcars to this facility to further process into a finished product, but the equipment to make that finished product had been relocated to the plant that made the ethylene oxide intermediate. We were told if those storage tanks had ever exploded the town of Bishop would essentially have been leveled and at minimum no building in Kingsville would have an intact window.
Intermediate bulk storage and transportation of chemical mixtures used for metallic cartridge priming compound would undoubtedly be to one degree or another similar in effect in case of a mishap with those bulk containers' storage contents, especially the transportation containers.
