Atikokan Mayor Dennis Brown was joined by Councillors Mary Makarenko,
Samantha Boyko and Harold Mosley at the event. Wawa Mayor Ron Rody and
Councillor Yvan Besner were also on hand.
The investment was split, with $1 million directed to the Atikokan
operation (housed in a converted particleboard mill), and $3 million for
Wawa, which is housed in a former paper mill. The Wawa facility is
considerably bigger; it’s designed to produce 450,000 tonnes of pellet
annually, versus 100,000 tonnes annually for the Atikokan operation.
Rentech has secured contracts with Drax, a U.K. power producer, and
Ontario Power Generation, for all the pellets the mills will
manufacture. It has also set up port dedicated transfer facilities at
the port of Quebec City to ensure smooth overseas shipping.
Getting the mills up and running has taken longer, and been more
expensive, than Rentech had anticipated when it launched the project in
February, 2013. The cost of the project is up from the original forecast
of $105 million primarily due to delays in construction and higher
labour costs for installation of electrical and mechanical components.