Pulp Mill Discussion

This weeks big environmental news was the Federal Governments refusal to approve the Gunns Pulp Mill until further environmental work has been completed. In the media frenzy around the pulp mill it is very hard to get a feel for whether it is a good or bad thing……or whether Tasmanians want it. There is also contradicting information on the interested parties websites. Here are some of the
•Gunns proposal to build the pulp mill was put to the Tassie government in Dec 2004
•The pulp mill takes woodchip and extracts the fibre – the resultant pulp is then used in papermaking. It takes 4 tonne of woodchip to make 1 tonne of pulp. The pulp mill value adds to existing woodchip ie no extra trees will be chopped down for pulping. Currently the woodchip is exported to be pulped.
•Gunns got approval from the Tasmanian govt for a ‘fast tracked’ environmental approval process.
•The mill would be situated in the Bell Bay industrial precinct, which already has an Aluminum Smelter, major Port of Launceston; export woodchip facilities; aluminium powder plant; seafood processing facility; Bell Bay Power station; a sawmill; and Gunns woodchip mills
•The mill will be a world class environmental standard plant – it will be ECF (Elemental chlorine free).
•A bigger issue than the pulp mill itself seems to be the use of old growth forest (which according to Gunns will only be re-growth), and the influence Gunns has on the Tasmanian Government.
•According to the Gunns website only native “regrowth” and plantation wood will be used, and within 5 yrs of operation 80% of the woodchip will come from plantation.
•According to the wilderness society this is not the case…”The agreement compels Forestry Tasmania to provide 1.5 million tonnes per annum of pulpwood to Gunns. These logs will be extracted from both plantations and native forests on public land managed by Forestry Tasmania. Forestry Tasmania’s projections show that it can provide, at most, only 500,000 tonnes per annum of pulpwood from plantations. That leaves a balance of over one million tonnes per annum to come from native forests”.

In the end it might be financial issues, not environmental, that are more likely to end the pulp mill idea. ANZ, a long time banker for Gunns, refused to finance the project last year. Since then it is unclear whether Gunns have the finance to proceed.