The restart of a mothballed Kenora stud mill and a major expansion is hinging on the final approval of a Crown wood supply. The Manitoba parent company of Kenora Forest Products, Prendiville Industries, is prepared to invest millions to modernize the shuttered operation and install an additional sawline, pending word of receiving a wood supply agreement from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry.
Mill manager Rod McKay said negotiations are ongoing with the ministry and he was hopeful of good news sometime early this year.
The mill has been allotted a combined 339,000 cubic meters of Crown fiber from various management units in the area, including a small portion from the contentious Whiskey Jack Forest.
Should the company get the wood, Prendiville is proposing to also refurbish the planer mill and add another dry kiln. McKay declined to place a number on the company’s capital investment in the mill except to say it was “significant.” McKay said it will be a huge expansion project involving construction of a massive new 340-foot-long planer mill with the latest technology, with plans to make machine stress-rated lumber.
The mill has been shuttered since April 2008 when the crash of the U.S. housing market caused Prendiville to close the operation and lay off 105 employees.
From Northern Ontario Business: http://www.northernontariobusiness.com/Industry-News/forestry/2015/02/Kenora-sawmill-prepares-for-2015-restart.aspx