Mackenzie to Celebrate Reopening of Pulp Mill

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 03:58 AM

Mackenzie, B.C.- Today is a day to celebrate in Mackenzie, as former Pope and Talbot/Worthington Pulp Mill will officially reopen.

It has been two years since the mill closed, throwing hundreds of people out of work. Initially purchased by the Worthington Group, the mill became the cause of environmental concern when it had not been prepared for a winter shut. The Province stepped in and kept a crew on site to get it through the winter, the same crew then prepared the mill for shut down until a buyer could be found.

The mill was sold to Sinar Mas subsidiary, Paper Excellence for $20 million this spring.

Since that purchase, Paper Excellence has pumped tens of millions of dollars into the facility in both maintenance and upgrades.

Premier Gordon Campbell and Minister of Forests and Range Pat Bell will be among those attending the celebrations today.

The restart of the mill means 270 people are back to work.

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Posted on Tuesday, August 17, 2010 03:58 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Mercenary on August 17 2010 7:53 AM

Great news! Now Conifex needs to complete their upgrades at the old Abitibi Bowater mill and Mackenzie will be close to where it was a few years ago with all guns ablazin.....

Posted by: Palopu on August 17 2010 8:25 AM

Good news for the Pulp Mill. I doubt that the paper mill will ever get started, the newsprint market is in the toilet.

In any event this is certainly a boost for MacKenzie and hopefully the mill can hang in there. I understand 80% of the production will go to China for their paper machines, and the balance sold of the work market.

We should keep in mind that when we sell cheap pulp to China for paper, some other mill somewhere will lose this business. So while this is good for MacKenzie as an example, it might not be so great for some other mill that was selling this tonnage.

In any event let the chips fall where they may. (Pun intended)

Posted by: Andyfreeze on August 17 2010 8:46 AM

Great news for the town..they have been whacked hard!
The only thing that bothers me is that it was Sinar Mas that bought the mill....scary.
Palopu is right...newsprint market is in the toilet bigtime!
Hopefully, things will go the way they are supposed to!

Posted by: lmorge on August 17 2010 10:14 AM

Suppose Campbell will take all the credit for it. Hope the people of Mackenzie send him a message re: the HST

Posted by: jakeadoo on August 17 2010 12:04 PM

I'm happy for Mackenzie,but how are those pieces of crap Campbell and Bell getting to Mackenzie today?Is Campbell flying here and then driving with Bell up their,to save on the carbon footprint they might leave in the north,or are they flying directly into Mackenzie.

Posted by: mackbc on August 17 2010 12:21 PM

Mackenzie has been hit hard enough and now with Campell and Bell in town to take credit for the pulp mill its not the only source of the bad smell ...should be better when they leave untill then we will have to hold our breath

Posted by: He spoke on August 17 2010 12:48 PM

Happy Joy joy.

Posted by: mythoughts on August 17 2010 2:24 PM

This is great news for all of Mackenzie. I sure hope it's just the beginning of many more mills that will reopen this year.