LOCAL NEWS: AVOLA LAND SET ASIDE FOR HABITAT ▼ A3
Times
Thursday, October 8, 2015 ▼ Volume 51 No. 41 ▼ www.clearwatertimes.com ▼ $1.35 Includes GST
THE
NORTH THOMPSON
FIRST TWO GAMES:
2014
CCNA BLUE RIBBON
Bantam Reps win one, lose one. See A12.
First Place Best All Round Newspaper & Best Editorial Page Second Place Best Front Page All of Canada <1,250 circulation 2014 First Place General Excellence B.C. and Yukon <2,000 circulation 2014
Yellowhead stops work on Harper Creek Times Staff
Yellowhead Mining Inc. announced Thursday morning that it is deferring work on its proposed Harper Creek mine southwest of Vavenby. The company recently completed a rights offering that raised about $1.1 million. According to Yellowhead, the proceeds of the rights offering will be used for general corporate and working capital purposes as well as
to repay a loan from Matco Capital Ltd. However, the net proceeds are not sufficient for the company to complete the environmental assessment for the Harper Creek project. In light of current conditions in the commodity markets and the international capital markets, Yellowhead’s board of directors has concluded that it is in the best interest of all shareholders to defer any additional expenditures on the Harper Creek project until such time as
more favorable commodity and capital markets present themselves. The rights offering began on Sept. 2 and closed on Sept. 29. Under the offering, those holding Yellowhead shares were allowed to buy an additional share at a price of $0.045 for every four shares already held. A total of 14 million common shares were issued under the basic subscription privilege and a total of 10 million common shares were issued under the additional
subscription privilege, resulting in the total number of issued and outstanding common shares of the company currently being 124 million common shares. Harper Creek is a proposed 70,000 tonnes-per-day open pit copper mine with a 28-year mine life, located about 10 km from Vavenby. According to the company, Harper Creek would provide up to 600 jobs during construction and up to 450 permanent jobs during operations if developed.
Canfor shows it's an important linchpin Keith McNeill There are about 150 employees at Canfor-Vavenby and their payroll is close to $20 million per year, according to division manager Steve Planeta. Overall, the division brings in nearly $100 million per year to the local economy, he said. Those statistics were among the information passed along during a public tour of the sawmill facility held Sept. 24 as part of National Forest Week. Despite the big numbers, it isn’t easy to make money in the forest industry these days. “It’s getting tougher and tougher,” Planeta said. “There’s very little left for profit.” Canfor-Vavenby was profitable during the first part of this year but not in the second. Two-thirds of the cost of producing lumber is in the logs. “The big money is in the timber supply,” Planeta said. “The cost of logs was about $54 per cubic meter three years ago. Now it’s up around $80 per cubic meter.” More people bidding means the price of logs is going up. The stumpage paid to government follows the price of logs but there is a lag – meaning if the log
(Back, l-r) Cheryl Thomas and John Gerber help (front, l-r) Hailegh Goodie and Ali Settle get ready for a tour of Canfor’s Vavenby sawmill on Thursday, Sept. 24. Gerber is the sawmill’s human resources manager while the other three were visitors. Photo by Keith McNeill
price goes down the sawmill could end up still paying high stumpage, based on what the price was a few months earlier. Depending on the circumstances, the division purchases between 40 and 50 per cent of its wood. The rest comes
from its tree farm license plus forest licenses. Attracting and keeping good, qualified people is an ongoing challenge. One solution has been to bring in people who already have some connection with the community. One example would be Andrew Winstanley, the divisional controller. He is a grandson of Vavenby pioneers Floyd and Frances Shook. “We have to sell the community in order to attract people,” Winstanley said. He pointed to developments such as the new Buy-Low grocery store as the sort of thing that makes it easier to attract new employees to the community. Canfor-Vavenby has been fortunate in being able to get a number of young people into apprenticeships. The experience in some other sawmills has been that, because getting apprenticeships is based on seniority, older workers have taken them, and then retired a few years later. The sawmill cuts mostly spruce and pine, plus a little balsam fir and Douglas fir. Continued on page A11
Highway 5 Little Fort, BC 250-677-4441
The best time of year Two people paddle a canoe through reflections of fall colors on the still waters of Dutch Lake late Sunday afternoon. Photo by Keith McNeill
Highway 5 Clearwater, BC 250-674-3148
Located on Highway 5