Atikokan Renewable Fuels awarded fibre supply

Feb. 1, 2011 – Atikokan Renewable Fuels has
accepted one of Ontario’s first new wood supply offers. The company will
produce wood pellets for domestic and international customers, to be used for
heating and electricity. It has accepted a wood supply offer of 179,400 cubic
metres/year of poplar and birch fibre. This is in addition to an existing offer
of 100,000 cubic metres/year.

With $1 million in support from the
Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corporation’s Enterprises North Job Creation
Program, the company plans to convert an industrial site into a wood pellet
plant. An additional $250,000 in support will go towards converting the plant’s
existing natural gas heating system to wood fibre-based heat through the
Northern Energy Program. According to Atikokan Renewable Fuels, the plant will
produce 140,000 tonnes/year of pellets when completed at the end of the second
quarter of 2011.

”This offer of a wood supply allocation is
an important step towards creating new forestry-based jobs in Atikokan and
surrounding areas,” says Ed Fukushima of Atikokan Renewable Fuels. “The
government has indeed taken bold steps in offering previously unused forest
resources within acceptable haul distances from our production facility. The
Rainy Lake Tribal Development Corporation, comprising area First Nation
communities and their leadership, is also pleased that the selection process
will allow their company, Rainy Lake Tribal Contracting, to commence operations
as the primary fibre handling and processing contractor at the Atikokan
facility.”