The former Fort St. James Pope & Talbot mill has been

P&T Fort St. James mill sold

The former Fort St. James Pope & Talbot mill has been sold.

An agreement has been made with a Canadian company, Conifex, and receiver PriceWaterouseCoopers. The former Pope & Talbot plant has been idle since it shut down in October 2007. An agreement had been previously made with PT Pindo Deli (Asia Pulp and Paper), but it fell through because PT Pindo Deli backed out of the agreement with three former P&T pulp mills in Oregon, Nanaimo, and Mackenzie.

APP made a challenge in court, but the courts ruled against them.

Between May 10 and June 10 the receiver identified 20 parties who were interested in purchasing the mill.

Most of the bids were for the sawmill and the forest license, but there were two bids for only the forest license.

All offers for the Mackenzie Pulp mill originally included the Fort St. James sawmill. When the sale of the Mackenzie mill was being held up because of issues concerning the chip fibre supply from Canfor and Canfor wanting out of their agreement with the former P&T Pulp mill in Mackenzie, the receiver pursued the sale of the Fort St. James plant only. PriceWaterhouseCoopers entered into an asset purchase agreement for the purchase and sale of the Fort St. James sawmill on July 4. The purchase price of $12.8 million includes sawmill and forest license assets. Environmental, forestry, and employee liabilities are to be assumed as well.

Sale of the plant is pending on court approval and on Ministry of Forest agreement to transfer the forest licence to Conifex. The closing date is five business days after the Ministry of Forests receives a notice for request.

It is a collective sigh or relief for a community that has been struggling through the toughest economic times in its 202-year history.