February 7, 1968 -- The announcement of a $3,900,000 expansion at the Aspenite plant in Hudson Bay was made jointly last Friday by Premier Ross Thatcher in Regina and the Honorable J.V. Clyne, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MacMillan Bloedel in Vancouver.
Construction is scheduled to start in May of this
year and the new production facilities will begin operating in September
of 1969. The expanded facilities will more than double the present
capacity of the plant to make it the largest particle board complex
in Canada.
The plant which is known as the Aspenite Division of MacMillan
Bloedel, presently employs about 170 persons, 110 in the mill and 60 in
the woods. When operating at full capacity, the expanded plant will
create another 80 jobs in manufacturing and 60 in the woods to bring
total employment to 310.
The Aspenite Division consumes about 45,000 cords of poplar to
produce some 310 million square feet of one-sixteenth "Aspenite" particle
board annually. The expansion will increase capacity to 645 million
square feet and a consumption of about 100,000 cords annually.
The Saskatchewan government has allocated additional timber to
MacMillan Bloedel to support the expansion. The expanded plant will be
Saskatchewan's largest woods products mill.
After initial improvements to production equipment, the MB
Research and Development Group came to Hudson Bay to review and
test further ideas in improving board quality and productivity.
These tests proved to be positive and good gains were made at the
Aspenite Division.
"Throughout this whole period," said Mr. Foster, "the plant
operating and maintenance crews pitched in with suggestions for
improvement and put their whole effort into making the mill even
better."
By March 1967 it became evident that the market demand would
exceed production and that an expansion might be necessary. A detailed
market study confirmed this suspicion and subsequently a proposal
for expansion was submitted to senior MacMillan Bloedel management.
Annual allowable cuts were determined, based on the regeneration
study and the 70 year growing cycle of Aspen. The cutting schedule of
Aspen was designed to support the expanded mill in perpetuity.
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