Bowater forges ahead with mills.

The wheels are in motion to get two new softwood lumber mills up and running in northwestern Ontario by the end of 2002.

Bowater Pulp and Paper Canada Inc. was recently given the go ahead by the Ministry of Natural Resources to reopen the former Ignace Sawmill in Ignace, and to begin construction on a new mill in Thunder Bay. The two projects are valued at $96 million.

Bowater spokesperson Sue Prodaniuk says construction is already underway in Ignace to expand and modernize the facility which shut down last fall and was sold to Bowater in November.

A location for the Thunder Bay sawmill has not yet been determined.

The new sawmills are part of Bowater's "strategic direction," Prodaniuk says.

She says the two facilities will create over 300 jobs and will be responsible for economic spinoffs in both communities.

"There are jobs, obviously," she says. "The Thunder Bay facility will employ 158 people. With that, there are going to be an additional 55 jobs that are expected to be created through associated woodlands and transportation requirements."

In Ignace, Bowater will re-establish the mill's original 63 positions and another 61 will be created due to woodland and transportation requirements.

A fall startup is anticipated for the Ignace mill, while the Thunder Bay facility will open sometime next year. The total production capacity of the mills will, be about 265 million board feet per year.

"The market that these would go to is basically the North American market - mostly for renovations and for do-it-yourselfers," Prodaniuk says.

Bowater, headquartered in Greenville, S.C., is a major newsprint producer.

The company also makes coated and uncoated groundwood papers, bleached draft pulp and lumber products.

With Bowater's pending acquisition of Alliance Forest Products Inc., the company will have 12 pulp and paper mills in the United States, Canada and South Korea and 13 North American sawmills that produce softwood and hardwood lumber.