Heywood pulp mill gets green signal

A $700 million pulp mill project at Heywood, in south-west Victoria, has been given the go-ahead by the Victorian government. The Heywood pulp mill is worth around $400 million, but when the power station and other facilities, as well as upgrades to road, rail and port facilities are added, the project will come close to costing $700 million.

It is a sister mill to the proposed Penola pulp mill, north of Mt Gambier, which is awaiting South Australian government approval. The pulp mills' development company, Protavia, said the projects represented a $1.3 billion investment for the 'green triangle' which extends from Warrnambool in Victoria to Kingston in South Australia.

Each of the pulp mills will process 700,000 tonnes of wood chip per year from Timbercorp blue gum plantations. The pulp mills are expected to generate an export industry worth $700 million a year, with increased import and export business for the south-west region.

Protavia said the non-chlorine pulp mills will utilise world best practice water recycling technology with "zero liquid discharge" that eliminates liquid wastewater into the environment. Each pulp mill has 18 mega litres within a closed system which is continuously recycled into the manufacturing system.

Protavia said that while similar pulp mills average 35 to 45 mega litres per day, the Heywood and Penola Mills will use three mega litres per day.