Chemical plant conversion begins at former UPM mill

Umoe Solar willconvert a shuttered Miramichi, N.B.,mill to be Canada's only facility producing polycrystalline silicon, a component used to make computer chips and solar panels.

Oystein Oyehaug, the chief executive officer of the Norwegian solar company, and other Umoe Solar officials toured the facility on Thursday and revealed the new owners' planfor the former paper mill.

The company had announced its purchase ofthe former UPM paper mill in the northern New Brunswick city in January.

When the plant is operating in two years, it will employ about 300 people in a city that has been hard hit by job losses in recent years.

Umoe Solar will need between 600 and 1,000 workers during construction, which is expected to start next spring.

Oyehaug said that most of the new positions hired at the plant would go to technical specialists and chemical engineers.

"[The facility] is primarily to produce polysilicon the raw materials going into solar panels but also computer chips for example. But the big growth market is for the solar panels for the future," Oyehaug said.

Umoe Solar is in the process ofrestructuring the UPM mill.

The company has to wait for an environmental impact assessment before it can start construction on the new chemical plant. That environmental process should be completed within six to eight months.

Company officials toured with Premier Shawn Graham and other high-ranking Liberals through the facility on Thursday.

Helping troubled economy

Speaking with reporters after viewing the site, Graham acknowledged the economic trouble in Miramichi, but said he was optimistic that Umoe Solar could help many people who have fallen on hard times.

"Miramichi is certainly going to be a hub of economic activity while the construction of the plant is underway," Graham said.

Miramichi's economy relied heavily on the forestry sector for years, but those jobs have disappeared in recent years, especially with the closure of the UPM mill in 2007.

Some former UPM mill workers are now making the transition to the new facility and have already been hired by Umoe Solar.

Nick Napke is one of the former UPM employees who is now working for the Norwegian company.

"Hopefully, the opportunities with the new company coming through, we'll see some of the people we worked with in the past hired back and it would be great to see them around again," he said.