Chemtrade will continue to supply a key ingredient used in Canfor's Prince George pulp mills until at least 2018.
In issuing its quarterly report this week, Chemtrade said the long-term agreement to supply sodium chlorate, used in the bleaching process for Canfor has been extended by five years.
The extension will help Chemtrade justify upgrades to electrical conversion and salt-handling capacity at its Prince George plant, the company's president and chief executive officer Mark Davis said in an interview.
A cost estimate is still being developed but Davis said the price tag will be between $5 million and $20 million. "We think it's going to be one of the lowest-cost plants in North America by the time we're done," Davis said.
About 40 people work at the plant and the size of its payroll will neither increase nor decrease as a result of the upgrades, Davis said. Sodium chlorate is used to manufacture chlorine dioxide, a key bleaching agent in the production of wood pulp for paper.
