Marsden mill to provide 300 new jobs

Press, 7 May 1980, Page 1

Marsden mill to provide 300 new jobs

PA Wellington The $l5O million pulp and paper mill planned for Marsden Point will provide at least 300 new jobs when it comes into production in 1985, says Mr D. O. Walker, general manager of N.Z. Forest Products. The project, announced yesterday, would be the company’s biggest single investment, he said. A Japanese company, Tokai Pulp and Paper, will be also be involved in the project but Mr Walker declined to give details of its participation. The announcement came after a meeting at Parliament buildings yesterday between Mr Walker, the Minister of Lands (Mr 'V. S. Young), the Minister of Regional Development (Mr Cooper), and several Northland Members of Parliament. Mr Walker said Forest Products hoped to export 90 per cent of its planned 150,000 - tonne annual production of high quality

printing paper from Marsden Point. , The mill will use the ’ thermo-mechanical process — as opposed to the chemical process used at Kinleith plant and at Tasman’s Kawerau mill which requires large amounts of water and expensive pollution - control equipment. The new mill might also use a ground • wood mechanical pulping or grinding process and would be a big consumer of energy, Mr Walker said. Early this year Forest Products bought a 50 ha site in the Marsden Point industrial zone, and it plans to plant 25,000 ha of forests to supplement timber from existing State forests in Northland. Asked whether the company expected any crith cism on environmental considerations, Mr Walker said he expected opposition. But with the thermomechanical process “there will not be very much to object to.”