A wood particle board mill that has been shut down in Athens since 2008 will come back to life producing wood pellets for export.
Waycross-based E-Pellets LLC said it will produce wood pellets at the former Louisiana Pacific oriented strand board plant after acquiring it from the the Nashville-based building products company for $13 million.
E-Pellets plans to invest $110 million to convert the plant, according to spokesman Ben Easterlin.
Easterlin told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the plant will employ about 75 people after the conversion is completed over the next year. The former plant had a payroll of more than 100.
Before it was closed six years ago due to the downturn in home construction, the plant produced engineered wood particle board made of compressed layers of wood strands, or flakes.
The wood pellets will be exported to the European Union to be used as an alternative to coal as fuel in power plants, E-Pellets said. The company will be able to export up to 1.35 million metric tons of wood pellets annually.
E-Pellets was formed with the acquisition of a wood pellets plant in Nanunta, Ga., and the plant in Athens.
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