NATCHEZ — Since acquiring a facility at the Natchez-Adams County Port last year, Elevance has produced millions of gallons of its products and has begun a $1 million upgrade to its Natchez facility.

The company celebrated its one-year anniversary in Natchez last week, and Elevance Spokesperson Rick Black said the company’s first capital project at the former Delta Biofuels facility is under way.

“A lot of that (project) is just the transformation of the plant to a biodiesel (plant) from a petroleum plant, and a lot of that includes a lot of equipment as well as retrofitting the rest of the facility,” Black said.

Likewise, the facility has gone into continuous operation, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, Black said.

The company began producing biodiesel from soybean oil in August. Since starting production in Natchez, it has produced more than 10 million gallons of its products that have filled 1,100 trucks.

“I figure this shows that (the plant) is continually operating, so it is not as though we are talking about (production) numbers that were done in one small fragment of time, where you had operations for a few months and then you shut it down,” Black said. “I think it shows the progress the plant is working toward.”

The company has hired a number of employees, but Black declined to specify how many because Elevance is in its quiet period for an initial public offering. He likewise said he could not discuss how much product the full plant would produce when it was completed for the same reasons.

Adams County Board of Supervisors President Darryl Grennell said he attended the company’s one-year celebration and was given the opportunity to speak with top company officials and to see local people who had been hired there.

“I was glad to go out to the celebration and have them announce to us that the Elevance project is alive and well and is moving forward,” Grennell said.

Natchez Inc. Executive Director Chandler Russ said seeing the milestone made him eager for the future.

“We are excited about the project and its progress so far, and we are looking forward to the construction and startup of their specialty chemical refinery in the near future,” he said.

When the company announced it was locating in Adams County in July 2011, it committed to adding 165 permanent jobs.

Elevance creates chemicals that serve as ingredients for personal care products, machine lubricants, detergents and fuels.