TimberWest considers pellet facility on Vancouver Island, BC

TimberWest Forest Corp. is considering a $60 million pellet plant at Duke Point in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Planning is in preliminary stages, however, with several steps to go before the project gets final approval and a formal announcement with project details is made.

"It's a complex project and we're in the process of doing our due diligence,” CEO Brian Frank said in a company statement.  “We've commenced our engineering and design, but we have not gone to a final investment decision yet. So it's not a certainty, but we're working very hard to make it a reality."

The steps ahead include consultation with First Nations, investment approval from the board, not to mention acquiring the necessary permits and final engineering designs. 

According to the company website, TimberWest is western Canada’s largest privately managed forest land owner with 804,200 acres on Vancouver Island. It leads the coastal industry in the growing and harvesting of second-growth timber. About 85 percent of TimberWest’s annual private land logging is done in second growth Douglas fir and hemlock stands.

TimberWest was incorporated in 1997 and acquired portions of the business of TimberWest Forest Ltd. and the private timberlands of Pacific Forest Products Ltd. In 2011, the company was acquired by two Canadian pension funds, British Columbia Investment Management Corp. and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board.