Plans for NL pellet plant halted

In May, Natural Resources Minister Jerome Kennedy confirmed that a company was interested in setting up shop at the former mill site.

Kennedy wouldn't name the company, but said it proposed making wood pellets there.

But the company involved, York Energy, now says the government abruptly cancelled the negotiations and has killed the deal.

Kennedy declined to speak with CBC News about the collapse of the long-gestating plan, which has been in the negotiations stage for nearly four years.

Further complicating matters are lingering questions about York Energy — how much product the company makes, where the pellets are sold, and even where they are actually made.

When York Energy came into being in 2008, it posted some company information on an internet business profile site, claiming to produce 120,000 metric tonnes of pellets at a plant in New Brunswick.

But when CBC News called officials in Woodstock, N.B., the town closest to the location of the plant, nobody had heard of it.

The Wood Pellet Association of Canada was similarly perplexed.

“I'm not aware of any pellet plant in New Brunswick that produces 120,000 tonnes and I've never heard of York Energy,” association executive director Gordon Murray told CBC News.

“I know all of the pellet plants in New Brunswick. There's five of them. Four of the five are members of our association. The largest of them produces 75,000 tonnes a year. I've just never heard of York Energy.”

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