Finance news

The former Pope & Talbot Inc. pulp mill in Halsey has been reopened.

Cascade Pacific Pulp LLC, the mill's new owners, said in a news release Tuesday the mill's operations have resumed after seven weeks of laying dormant.

"It is great to have the employees back and the mill in operation again," Wayne Henneck, Cascade Pacific's president, said in a news release.

The mill shut down on May 9 when Pope & Talbot, the bankrupt Portland-based paper products company, transitioned from Chapter 11 reorganization to Chapter 7 liquidation proceedings.

On June 20, Minnesota-based Wayzata Investment Partners made a winning $31.15 million cash bid for the mill in the second of two bankruptcy auctions.

Wayzata, an investment firm with $5 billion under management, created Cascade Pacific Pulp as a wholly owned subsidiary to run the mill fast cash advance. It appointed Henneck, who was general manager of the site under Pope & Talbot, as president.

Operations resumed June 27 with Cascade hiring most of the mill's former employees, the company said in the news release.

The mill employs about 150 people and has the capacity to produce 180,000 tons of bleached and unbleached pulp per year for use in various paper products and building materials. The pulp is shipped to customers across the United States and in Asia and Europe.

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