There have been some tough years for Slave Lake Pulp, but they’re thankfully past. For the time being, at least, the little pulp mill that could is out of the red and into the black and looks to stay that way.
New mill manager Rick Denton says the first few years after West Fraser purchased the mill back in the mid-1990s were lean ones. Pulp prices were persistently low, and the cost of producing the stuff made it difficult if not impossible to turn a profit. West Fraser wasn’t too happy about it.
Now? Things have improved.
“Now we’re making money and the market isn’t even good,” says Denton, who moved up from production manager to overall mill manager last November. “It’s a good business to be in.”
The key to being profitable in such a business, Denton says, is to find ways to reduce the cost of production. One such improvement to the process – called the ‘post bleaching/energy project – has made a big difference in reducing those costs.
Spearheaded by Denton himself when he was production manager, the project cost West Fraser a whopping 10 million dollars. But the savings it generates will recoup that expenditure, “in three or four years,” says Denton.
The savings come in reduced energy consumption and also in chemicals, thanks to a new process Denton and his team designed over a period of years.
“The chemical saving comes from a patented bleaching process,” Denton says. “We’re the only mill in the world that’s using it.”
The energy saving arises from being able to concentrate the bulk of the pulp refining process in the hours of cheaper electricity prices. Those prices fluctuate hourly, peaking during highest use hours during the day. At night they drop off, and Denton and crew reasoned that they’d be better off going full tilt during those hours. But the way the production line was configured, they couldn’t.
What they needed was to add, “a very large bleaching tower,” about a third of the way through the process. That way, all that excess nocturnal production could be stored until the downstream two thirds of the process was ready for it.
The job was completed in early 2003 and has been working well. The mill is turning a profit, jobs are secure, and everybody’s happy.
Better yet, says Denton, the improvements have a net environmental benefit.
“On the environmental side it’s allowed us to use less water and reduce effluent discharge per tonne of pulp,” he says.
Denton describes the pulp market at the moment as being, “a bit soft,” but with signs of improving in Asia. That’s where 60 per cent of the pulp bearing the ‘Ranger’ logo goes, as opposed to 20 per cent to Europe and another 20 per cent to the U.S. market. 10 years ago it was 60 per cent to Europe, but the trend is toward selling more in Asia.
“It’s a better business,” says Denton. “More modern mills.”
Ranger pulp is used to produce high quality coated paper and paper board (used in packaging and for some glossy magazines).

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