Capital Investments
In April, we announced $30 million of capital investments to improve infrastructure, productivity and cost performance at our Polar sawmill in Bear Lake, BC. The project included upgrades to log processing, lumber handling and residuals systems, as well as replacement of electrical components and the sawmill building structure. The improvements include design and technologies to enhance the mitigation of combustible dust.
We invested $11 million in a biomass-fired thermal energy system at our Elko Sawmill and conversion of our lumber dry kilns from natural gas to biomass-generated thermal heat.
We are investing $58 million in pellet plants at two of our mill sites in northern British Columbia – Chetwynd and Fort St. John – in partnership with Pacific BioEnergy. When these plants start up in fall 2015 and early 2016, they will contribute to our sustainable value proposition by enhancing our utilization of sawmill residuals.