News Paper Pulp
Repap submits offer to buy Resolute’s idled Fort Frances pulp mill

March 18, 2019 – Repap Resources Group, a private investment company, has submitted a bid to purchase Resolute Forest Products’ idled pulp mill in Fort Frances, Ontario.

The mill has been closed since 2014.

CBC News reports that Repap tendered a “multi-million-dollar” proposal in time for the March 15 offer deadline. Repap has said it intends to restart the mill, providing 600-700 new jobs in the community, which Fort Frances mayor June Caul and council have applauded.

In early February, Resolute sent a letter to Caul, saying it planned to sell the mill to an undisclosed “community redeveloper” that would tear the mill down, which she said was in direct opposition to information she’d received in December 2018 that Repap would purchase the mill.

At the time, Sean Twomey, a spokesperson for Resolute, said that negotiations with Repap had stalled because the company wouldn’t sign a non-disclosure agreement barring buyers from involving the government in the sale – meaning there would be no way to negotiate the forest management license owned by Resolute for access to the Crossroute Forest, the main source of fibre supply for the Fort Frances mill.

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Upon receiving the letter, Fort Frances town council passed a motion criticizing Resolute’s handling of the sale. Councillors said the company must allow bidders and agree to participate in the negotiation of access to fibre.

Resolute deemed the town’s statements defamatory and said it was still accepting separate bids until the March 15 deadline.

The company has not confirmed whether there have been other offers, but did say that the Repap bid proposes the Fort Frances mill can supply Resolute’s Ignace and Atikokan sawmills with saw logs, if it can get access to Resolute’s wood chips and raw pulp.

Read the full story here.