Second Buyer Lined Up for Marathon Pulp Mill Assets

Staff

Marathon, Ontario, Canada 27 May 2014 -- An American company that was planning to purchase the shuttered pulp mill in Marathon, Ont., has withdrawn, and a second developer has declared its intent to purchase the mill and its lakeside property, according to a report in Northern Ontario Business on May 23.

Reliance Developments Corp. has signed a letter of intent with mill owner Tembec. Reliance Developers previously purchased the former Thunder Bay Fine Papers mill and are carrying out environmental cleanup there.

Financial assurances for environmental cleanup were apparently the reason behind Green Investment Group’s decision not to pursue its potential purchase of the Marathon mill.

Northern Ontario Business explains that because the mill property on the shore of Lake Superior was heavily contaminated, the Ontario Ministry of Environment had final say on any sale agreement. As the property owner, Tembec was forced by MOE to post $4.8 million in financial assurance to the Crown for the site’s remediation. The money will be returned to the company once the cleanup is finished to the ministry’s satisfaction, says Northern Ontario Business.

The news site reports that Tembec has hired a Toronto demolition crew which will soon start tearing down some of the buildings on the property.