OF YOUR Premium Pellet is co-located in Vanderhoof with Nechako Lumber and Nechako Green Energy, all three of which are owned by Prince George, B.C.-based Sinclar Group. The pellet plant exclusively produces a high-grade white wood pellet. TAKE CONTROL SUPPLY “We’re trying to put the best technol-ogy out there in place,” Mohns says. “In our studies, [the current system] ran much cleaner than we anticipated.” OBSTACLES ON THE HORIZON “There have been multiple challenges finding supplies and people for the proj -ect. Then you add in COVID. You name it, we’ve run into it,” Mohns says. “So, we made some changes. We’ve been do-ing a lot of this project internally with our onsite fabrication team”. The in-house aspect has led to both savings and additional challenges, he says. “It slows it down maybe a little bit, but it does really reduce our costs. Being a smaller town, usually any contractors are driving up, driving back. All that travel and LOA [living out allowance] costs really start to add up.” While staff built a new set of skills by taking on the integration project, other aspects of their jobs such as pre-ventative maintenance often drop down the list of priorities. That has once again become a focus as the project dust settles. Rail transportation continues to be a challenge for many forestry operations across the country, and Nechako is no ex-ception. The company recently complet-ed a study on their rail line that may lead to a large rail expansion that would give Nechako and Premium Pellet increased flexibility when it comes to shipping their product to market. All regulatory requirements and public consultations on the expansion are com-pleted and submitted for review at this point. “We’re hoping to have everything up and running by September or October,” Mohns says. As the project wraps up, Mohns’ atten-tion is turned again to the larger challenges with fibre supply in B.C. “With the provin -cial government’s various fibre initiatives, we are continuing to focus on building re-lationships with key stakeholders and look-ing for internal opportunities to add value to marginal logs,” Mohns says. For years Nechako has partnered with First Nations logging groups and mills. Nechako Lumber has enjoyed a long-term relationship with Saik’uz First Nations and currently has an agreement co-manag-ing a 10-year forest licence targeting small profile wood within the Saik’uz traditional territory. The small profile includes moun -tain pine beetle-killed pine, which pro-vides biofibre for Premium Pellet. Also, on the horizon for Premium Pel -let is a branding refresh that will proudly display the company’s wood pellet quality and sustainability certification. In 2017, Premium became the first pellet producer in Canada to hold both Sustainable Bio-mass Program (SBP) Certification and ENplus/CANplus certification. Premium Pellet is a founding member of the Wood Pellet Association of Canada and continues its support today and into the future. • Brunette BioSizer – – – – Consistent, Uniform Product Extreme-Duty Swing-Away Anvil Fixed Strikers for Maximum Bite Single Bolt Reversible Strikers ® HIGH-SPEED GRINDER VERSATILE GRINDING Green Green Hog Fuel Results Pulp Chip Results Process a Variety of Materials: -Oversized “Bush-Grind” Hog Fuel -Trim Blocks,Wood Chips & Overs -Pre-Ground Demolition Materials -Typical Urban Wood Waste 1-800-686-6679 www.brunettemc.com [email protected] Canadian BIOMASS 13
Canadian Biomass Summer 2022: Page 13
