Canfor’s Radium mill gearing up for fall restart

Radium's Canfor sawmill is being readied to restart.

Canfor, B.C.'s largest forestry product company, is busy getting their shuttered Radium Hot Springs sawmill back into production. The mill has been out of production since it was moth-balled back in the spring of 2009.

Now with an infusion of over $38 million in cash, Canfor is re-configuring the sawmill to be a more efficient and state-of-the-art wood production facility. Plus the company is adding a whole new bio-energy generation plant to utilize the mill's waste wood.

As a major employer in the Columbia Valley, the 130-plus good paying jobs will be a welcome addition to the valley's economy when the on switch is thrown later this fall.

Prince George based BID Group of Companies is the main supplier and contractor which is commissioned to re-fit the sawmill and install the new wood processing equipment.

Canfor is also investing $1.5 million in their Canal Flats mill with the installation of new lumber drying equipment.

Canfor recently purchased the sawmill assets of Tembec in the East Kootenay – which includes their existing mills in Canal Flats and Elko. Tembec retained the ownership of their Skookumchuck pulp mill. Canfor has indicated that they will relocate their Cranbrook regional office from the old Central School heritage building (recently sold to the Ktunaxa nation) to a re-purposed office building in Cranbrook's industrial park.

Canfor had $2.4 billion in revenue last year and employs over 4,000 people primarily in British Columbia. B.C. business magnate Jimmy Pattison is Canfor's largest shareholder.