By Sarah Wallace

PA Pulp Mill over a year away from full production

Aug 28, 2013 | 4:50 PM

Not only is the Prince Albert Pulp Mill already generating power, but it will soon be going ahead with dissolving pulp.

Dale Patterson, vice-president of operations for Paper Excellence, the company that owns the mill said the pulp mill has already been producing power for about a year now.

“We’re supplying green energy to SaskPower and we continue to do so. We are working on the conversion of the mill to dissolving pulp. We have defined to date all the specifications for new equipment in the mill and we are commercially negotiating that equipment,” Patterson explained.

Patterson explained dissolved pulp “is a pulp that is almost pure cellulose, it’s used in the manufacture of rayon, which is clothing. In the specialty business it’s used to manufacture pharmaceuticals, pills, food additives, tire cords, stuff like that.”

He said it’s their intention to produce the raw product at the mill.

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“We intend to go ahead and restart the mill,” he continued.

“We suspect it will be 18 to 20 months from now, we will be looking to hire an additional 200 people at the mill site [and] we are also doing other unique things we’ll talk about in a press conference later,” he said.

“We want to do some very unique things and are involved in a number of things on site now and we’ll share those in a major press conference.”

Currently there are about 40 people on site and once at full capacity the mill will be able to produce 650 tonnes a day.

“We are making the commitment to go ahead,” Patterson finished.

He said they’re currently in the process of preparing a press conference, which will take place within the next couple of weeks.

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid