Todd Whitcombe demonstrates what happens when fine dust meets ignition source – photo 250News

Prince George, B.C. – Conifex has announced it is spending $12 million dollars on  high tech dust reduction systems in its mills in Ft. St. James and Mackenzie.

Company President Ken Shields (in the white shire in photo above)  says $7 million is being spent in Ft. St. James,  and $5 million in Mackenzie,  and while the end result will be the same at both mills,  the Ft. St. James price tag is higher because that mill is larger.

The work is underway now, and is expected to be completed by the end of November.

The technology will contain and extract combustible dust.   It involves installation of a bag house, and 50 thousand CFM  system that will extract dust produced in the mill.  The dust will then be separated from the air, and  filtered air  circulated back into the  mill.

The collected dust will be  moved to storage bins and ultimately the  material in the bins will be  used to fuel the  bio-energy system at the Mackenzie mill.

The dust control system will meet all new requirements of  WorkSafe BC and other regulatory  bodies.

The new system will ensure there will be no more than 1/8 th of an inch of dust  allowed to collect in the mill area.

United Steelworkers Local 1-424  President Frank Everitt offered a “big thank you ” to Conifex for this work,  “Conifex is spending a substantial amount of money to make sure each and every one of us comes home from work in the same condition we arrived on the job.”