Kruger's VP says work to begin soon on $700M retrofit at Corner Brook Pulp and Paper

Kruger’s Vice President Special Projects Darren Pelley says discussions with a number of stakeholders have been ongoing since the deal was made in March of last year.

Last week, government announced an extension to an agreement to buy power until next March to allow Corner Brook Pulp and Paper more time to find new money from viable wood-based projects. Nl Hydro is buying excess electricity from the company’s Deer Lake Power station. Kruger’s Vice President Special Projects Darren Pelley says discussions with a number of stakeholders have been ongoing since the deal was made in March of last year. He says this new agreement will end in March of next year but they would like to get started soon on the $700M project to be able to produce more than newsprint.

Pelley says the purchase is for 80,000 megawatt hours which is  a small portion of what they produce in a year. He says a huge part of their energy is consumed in newsprint operations which will change because their plan includes the construction of  windfarm to power the mill. 

Corner Brook Pulp and Paper is celebrating its 100th anniversary and Pelley says the reason the mill is there is because of employees, an excellent timber resource and their hydro electric facilities. He says this project will allow that operation to continue for decades to come.

Pelley says one of the new products will be saw logs, the timber harvesting will prioritize delivery for saw mills on the island first, they will extract lumber products initially and residual chips will come back to the mill for paper production. He says this is the best value stream for harvesting.