'Ready to move' on wood pellet mill
Brad Mapes gets his ducks in a row to build proposed facility in Enterprise
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, December 8, 2014
ENTERPRISE
For the past four years, Brad Mapes has been talking about - and working on - a proposal to build a wood pellet mill in Enterprise.
Brad Mapes, the proponent for a wood pellet mill in the South Slave, holds a handful of sample pellets at his office in Hay River. - Paul Bickford/NNSL photo |
And now, the well-known Hay River businessman has had enough of just talking about Aurora Wood Pellets.
"I'm ready to move on it," he said during an interview last week with News/North.
Plus, he's feeling the pressure to get the project moving.
"I can't go anywhere without somebody coming to me and saying, 'When are you going to be ready to go?'" he said. "I have to listen to that all the time."
When he first started working on the project, he noted a lot of people considered it a pipe dream.
Mapes now "definitely" expects construction of the mill - at a cost of $20 to $23 million - will begin this coming summer.
"It's going to happen," he stated.
Mapes said he is very confident the project will become a reality.
"I'm not saying that there aren't a few hurdles to deal with as we speak," he said. "But it's all about putting your ducks in order, and I've learned in my four years to speak pretty good quack."
Mapes said the biggest ducks to get in a row were Fort Resolution and Fort Providence, where aboriginal groups created joint ventures and signed forest management agreements with the GNWT earlier this year.
"Those are the two biggest harvesting communities," he noted. "Those two communities are enough to move our project forward."
Mapes is also committed to seeing agreements eventually signed with aboriginal organizations in Hay River, Jean Marie River and Kakisa.
The harvesting aspect of the project would be controlled by the community groups, and Mapes will buy wood fibre at $6 per cubic metre.
"The $6 a cubic metre is the bread and butter of this project," he explained. "They're able to generate funds from everything that they harvest."
The mill will probably produce at least 100,000 tonnes annually.
"Anybody can produce a pellet," Mapes noted. "What we want to do is produce a pellet that's going to be a true premium pellet."
Such wood pellets may be a bit more expensive, but are more in demand because they produce more heat, result in less ash and break down much less during shipping.
Mapes noted there has even been interest from potential buyers in South Korea.
Only a few mills in North America produce pellets from core wood, as will be done in Enterprise. Most mills produce pellets as a by-product, such as from debarked material at a sawmill.
The debarked material at Aurora Wood Pellets will be used for two things - burned to heat dryers or used to make pressed logs, which is condensed firewood that can replace regular firewood.
Mapes will control 97 per cent of the project, with the remaining three per cent being held by a business partner.
Over the next five years, he noted harvesting communities will have the option to buy into Aurora Wood Pellets, but he will maintain a controlling interest.
Mapes said the mill will employ about 30 people on site and there will be another 150 direct and indirect jobs created in harvesting, plus there will be a positive ripple effect throughout the economy.
"Employment is key," he said. "That's what this whole project is."
Land for the mill has not yet been obtained in Enterprise.
"We won't purchase the land until our agreements are all finalized," said Mapes.
The project is targeting roughly 130 acres north of Enterprise, but within the hamlet's corporate limits.
Enterprise Mayor John Leskiw II is pleased construction of the mill may start this coming summer.
Leskiw explained the land for the mill has been technically, but not yet legally, obtained by the hamlet from the GNWT.
"We have been given the right to have it," he said. "They have reserved it for us and they accepted our application for it."
However, he noted that, before the Commissioner's land can be transferred to the hamlet, it has to be surveyed and registered in the lands office.
"It's kind of already predefined in our land plan that Mr. Mapes will be getting that land for his pellet plant," said Leskiw.
The mayor said, if the mill is built, it will have a number of effects on Enterprise, including the possibility more housing will be required.
Don Harrison, general manager of Timberworks Inc., which is a joint venture of the Fort Resolution Metis Council and Deninu K'ue First Nation, said it has begun working on a 10-year development plan after having secured a forest management agreement with the GNWT.
Harrison said it is anticipated Timberworks Inc. will submit an application for a land-use permit to the Mackenzie Valley Land and Water Board before the end of February.
Timberworks expects to begin cutting wood in December of next year.
"We're a year away from actually knocking any trees down," said Harrison.
While no agreement has yet been signed between Timberworks and Aurora Wood Pellets, he said the mill is very much one of the potential buyers of the raw timber.
"We're optimistic that we can work things out," said the general manager.
Mapes said benefit agreements and wood fibre agreements will be negotiated with each community supplying the pellet plant.
The harvesting and the pellet mill will be sustainable for the South Slave, which needs the economic activity and the jobs, he said. "I've always said from day one that it's really a wellness project as much as economic growth. It's an opportunity for our towns."
