Tag Archives: Worthington

Paper Excellence has restarted the Mackenzie pulp mill putting 270 people back to work in British Columbia.

Paper Excellence, a Dutch company, is a subsidiary of the Asian conglomerate Sinar Mas. Paper Excellence bought the mill out of bankruptcy for $20 million at the end of March and promised to spend $30 million to $40 million on maintenance and upgrades.

This mill was previously owned by Pope and Talbot, followed by Worthington Mackenzie.

Paper Excellence wanted this Mackenzie mill so they could secure a source of northern bleached softwood kraft pulp. 80% of the mill’s output is expected to be sold to affiliated mills in Asia.

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Mackenzie pulp mill restarts, putting 270 back to work (Vancouver Sun)

Sinar Mas, the parent company of Asia Pulp & Paper, is taking a second look at the Mackenzie pulp mill.

The mill is now under the control of the Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corporation who took over maintenance of the mill site from the British Columbia provincial government. The government had seized control of the mill from Worthington Mackenzie to dispose of the toxic chemicals.

The Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corp. includes local investors from the Mackenzie, British Columbia area: Fort St. James-based K&D Logging, the McLeod Lake Indian Band-owned Duz Cho Logging, Vancouver Island-based Interior Fibre Management, and Tanner Elton & Associates.

The Development Corp. have spent over a million dollars this winter keeping a skeleton crew at the mill to keep vital equipment from freezing.

Tanner Elton, head of the Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corp., said yesterday that talks are taking place with Sinar Mas to purchase the pulp mill.

A number of obstacles stand in the way of a deal, especially long-term access to fibre. Now that prices for pulp and lumber are improving, the idled Mackenzie mill is attracting investor interest.

It’s not the first time Sinar Mas has been interested in the mill. In 2008, the company was negotiating the purchase three pulp mills and a sawmill from bankrupt Pope & Talbot, That deal, for $225 million, fell apart.

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Asian forestry giant takes second look at Mackenzie pulp mill (Vancouver Sun)

A new company, Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corp., has reached an agreement to take possession of the Worthington Mackenzie pulp mill for the next 6 months.

Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corp. includes local investors from the Mackenzie, British Columbia area: Fort St. James-based K&D Logging, the McLeod Lake Indian Band-owned Duz Cho Logging, Vancouver Island-based Interior Fibre Management, and Tanner Elton & Associates.

Mackenzie Pulp Mill Development Corp. also has an exclusive option to purchase the mill, but stresses it will not be operating the mill. They will, however, be spearheading the hunt for a new owner, as well as trying to put in place elements that will make a sale more straight forward, including securing long-term wood fibre for the pulp mill.

The development corporation says its key focus is to protect the pulp mill’s assets and infrastructure during the winter by keeping critical equipment warm. If the mill was not kept warm during the winter in some fashion, workers believed that damage would be so extensive there would be no chance of ever re-opening the plant.

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Shuttered Mackenzie pulp mill thrown a life line (Prince George Citizen)

The province of British Columbia is no longer maintaining the Worthington-Mackenzie pulp mill in Mackenzie, B.C.

The province has made the site safe by disposing of the most toxic of the chemicals stored on site, including all of the chlorine dioxide, white liquor, black liquor, and green liquors.

The consortium is made up of a group of individuals that see potential in the mill and think they have the potential to market the mill.

Minister of Forests and Range, Pat Bell, says the interest in the Worthington-Mackenzie mill has increased significantly over the past couple of months. “There is a significant amount of money moving around B.C. right now from investors who are looking for pulp mills, saw mills, paper mills that sort of thing, it’s been quite a shift in the last 30 to 60 days in terms of the interest in the forest industry and I think that’s going to start yielding some long term results.”

In February the province stepped in to ensure the mill’s remaining personnel were paid and that no environmental disasters were likely to occur. Since February, the province has spent $6 million and expects to recoup the costs. Pat Bell said, “We have put the appropriate liens in place and we do have all the tactical things that need to be done from a legal perspective. The real question is, ‘what is the value of the mill, and will that value be recovered through a sale at this point?’”

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Another Chapter in Worthington-Mackenzie Mill Ends Later Today (Opinion 250 News)

The proposed deal for China’s United Petroleum Group to purchase the Worthington Mackenzie mill has fallen apart.

The deal has apparently fell apart over an estimated $20 million in outstanding costs that remain unpaid.

Former workers of the mill warn that the boilers have been shut down since July and if they aren’t restarted by November, vital operating systems will freeze.

Worthington Mackenzie has not been involved in the mill’s operation since it stopped paying maintenance workers last January.

The provincial government has spent an estimated $6.5 million on the mill since then, which it is only likely to collect if the mill is sold. Worthington Mackenzie also owes more than $4 million in back taxes to the town of Mackenzie, British Columbia. Costly effluent permits also need to be paid.

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Deal to restart pulp mill in Mackenzie dies (Vancouver Sun)

The United Petroleum Group of China, one of China’s largest private oil companies, is close to purchasing the idled Worthington Mackenzie pulp mill for a rumoured $20 million.

Worthington Mackenzie purchased the pulp mill for $6.5 million in May 2008 when the mill’s owner, Pope & Talbot, went into receivership. The mill did not restart and the province of British Columbia has been on the hook for the maintenance of the mill ever since.

As part of the proposed deal, the United Petroleum Group of China agrees to maintain the mill until the deal is finalized in December. This means the machinery would be kept warm to prevent damage from freezing.

The Chinese also say they want to secure a fibre supply for the mill as a condition to re-opening it. The Mackenzie wood fibre supply was sold to Canfor Corp. as part of the deal in which Mackenzie Worthington bought the pulp mill out of bankruptcy a year ago.

Forests Minister Pat Bell said Thursday that if the mill is sold, there will be a fibre supply.

A deal was expected by Friday, but the burgeoning costs of keeping the mill mothballed stalled talks.

Read more:
Chinese negotiating to buy Mackenzie pulp mill (Vancouver Sun\0
Mackenzie mill deal stalls over costs (Vancouver Sun)

No buyer has been found for the Worthington Mackenzie pulp mill.

Last month a proposal by Range Gold Corp. left many people scratching their heads when a quick look at their financial record showed they did not seem to have the ability to purchase the mill.

B.C.’s Forests Minister Pat Bell is now saying that the mill could be shut down for years, but he is optimistic that it will reopen some day.

“I do think that mill has a good opportunity to get up and running,” said Bell. “We continue to see a downturn in the pulp sector right now. So very challenging times for the industry, but it is a good mill. It has excellent access to fibre.”

The provincial government in British Columbia is still trying to recover the cost of maintaining the mill from the current owners — but who that is isn’t clear.

After Worthington Properties bought the mill, ownership was turned over to a company called Worthington Mackenzie. The owner of Worthington Properties, Dan White, resigned as director of the company, leaving the only person listed on the corporate registry of Worthington Mackenzie is someone named Drago N. Puskaric from Slovenia.

Then in March, the offices of Worthington Properties in Edmonton were stuck by arson, and many of the company records were destroyed.

Read more:
B.C. finds no buyers for Mackenzie mill (CBC)

Many questions have been raised in the last 24 hours since we heard that Mackenzie Timber Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Range Gold Corp, put an offer on the table for the Worthington Mackenzie mill.

Questions like:

• Why hasn’t the mill been seized for non-payment of taxes? About $2 million is owed in municipal taxes.
• If the province has been paying millions to keep the mill site safe and is paying the workers, would all of the purchase price go to Worthington Properties?
• How would Range Gold Corp afford to purchase this mill? If you look up the company’s financial position (available through www.sedar.com) they don’t seem to have the cash or assets available to make a purchase of this size.
• Worthington purchased the mill for $6.5 million in 2008. So why is the offer now for $12 million plus as much as $33 million in shares?

Turns out we weren’t alone in our suspicions. Opinion 250 News went even further with their suspicions:

Range Gold’s CEO is Donald Sheldon. It is alleged Sheldon put up the bail for a man accused (but not convicted) of money laundering 6 years ago and that is raising some eyebrows. A second man arrested in that investigation was Martin Chambers, who was eventually convicted and is serving time in Florida.

It is also alleged Worthington Properties CEO Dan White, (and at one time sole director of the company which owns the Mackenzie Mill) had links with Chambers in the 1990s. It should be noted White was charged and convicted of money laundering in 1998, that case involved illegal liquor sales. White served a 6 month sentence of house arrest.

Source:
Mill Offer Raising Questions (Opinion 250 News)

Mackenzie Timber Group, a wholly owned subsidiary of Range Gold Corp, has entered into an option to purchase the Worthington Mackenzie pulp mill.

The offer is for a cash payment of $12 million, and as much as $33 million in shares of Range Gold. The option is good until May 1 of next year.

Worthington Properties purchased the mill for $20 million in 2008, but when Canfor canceled the mill’s wood chip supply contract, the purchase price was reduced to $6.5 million.

Mackenzie Timber’s Chief Financial Officer, Garth Edgar says the recent announcement by Canfor to restart it’s sawmill in Mackenzie was very encouraging. Edgar said Mackenzie Timber would re-enter talks with Canfor to re-establish a chip supply.

Duncanson Investment Research is currently reviewing the purchase proposal.

Edgar says Mackenzie Timber is also taking a look at the shuttered AbitibiBowater plant in Mackenzie “The brain trust here doesn’t just see a pulp mill.”

If the deal is approved with all parties agreeing to meet the conditions (including tax breaks, union concessions etc) Edgar says it is still too difficult to pin down a date when the mill could be up and running “Someone said September may be a reasonable deadline” says Edgar “But there is still a lot more work to do.”

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Offer on the Table for Worthington Mackenzie Mill (Opinion 250 News)

Worthington Properties, new owner of the Pulp & Talbot pulp mill in Mackenzie, British Columbia, is facing the court-ordered sale of their fire-damaged building in Edmonton, Alberta.

The building is a historic Edmonton landmark. In March it was damaged by arson, and is expected to sell as part of a court-ordered sale for less than half of what is owing on the property.

Worthington Properties has never re-opened the mill in Mackenzie and hasn’t paid any taxes owing on the property. The provincial government is currently maintaining the property and paying the salaries of the 50 employees.

To catch up on the sketchy past of Dan White and Worthington Properties, visit the ForestTalk archives: http://foresttalk.com/index.php?s=worthington&submit=Search