Company from India may buy Sask. pulp mill

Saskatchewan's energy minister said Monday he's confident a buyer will be announced within days for a shuttered pulp mill in Prince Albert.

Bill Boyd said he met Friday with representatives from a major company from India who may be able to buy the mill from its current owner, Domtar.

Domtar, however, said it's willing to sell but wants the mill's future owner to produce a product that doesn't compete directly with its own.

Boyd said the Indian concern would like to produce pulp, but for a different market than Domtar's.

"They're a little bit different type of company," he said. "They're a company that does dissolving pulp for use in manufacturing of rayon, I think it is, and they're looking at it from that standpoint."

In 2006, the mill, then owned by Weyerhaeuser, closed, throwing hundreds of well-paid employees out of work. Domtar purchased the facility when it was closed.  

Since then, various companies, including an ethanol venture, have looked at the possibility of buying it, although nothing concrete has come about.

In mid-November, former mill workers signed an agreement with prospective buyer Paper Excellence, which wanted to reopen the mill.

But Domtar cast doubt on the deal at the time.

Company spokesperson Bonny Skene previously said Domtar wasn't interested in helping competitors put more pulp on the world market.

But the Indian company may have a winning proposal, Boyd suggested. He said the company is worth $25 billion and has a presence in major world markets.

"Well I think they're pretty serious," he said.

"A very, very successful company … and we're certainly interested," Boyd said.