Baileyville plant could employ 400

BAILEYVILLE – A plan to install a $2.5 million basalt smelting plant in the former Louisiana-Pacific facility was unveiled Tuesday.

Voters will be asked to approve a $2.5 million bond package as conduit financing for the newly created Maine company, Ecomelt Corp. The company was incorporated in 2003.

Company officials said there were three phases to the project and ultimately the company hopes to employ at least 400 people.

The company plans to turn basalt, a volcanic type rock, into products that can be used in various industries worldwide.

The town meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 3, at the Woodland Elementary School.

Town Manager Scott Harriman said he was pleased that Ecomelt was working with Louisiana-Pacific Corp. to purchase its now empty oriented strand board mill and turn it into a production facility. “We are excited about the prospect. We are excited about creating needed jobs in Washington County,” he said. “We are hopeful that we can pull everything together and put a viable business back into the old OSB building.”

Ecomelt company spokesman John Wakin of Meddybemps explained Tuesday that basalt would be used in a smelting process to make a continuous filament that can be used in the construction of filtration bags for industrial plants, as an insulator in sheet rock and to replace fiberglass on the hulls of boats.

Wakin said it also could be used in making reinforcement bars used in the construction of bridges. “What happens [is] your concrete rebars rust over time. So it weakens a bridge and they have to replace it,” he said.

It has been a tough year for this mill town and its workers.

In 2002, L-P purchased the OSB plant from Georgia-Pacific Corp. In the more than two years it did operate, it had few continuous production days. In October 2004, the company shut down production blaming poor market conditions. In April it announced it had no plans to reopen.

Harriman said although voters are being asked to approve the bond package, there will be no financial liability to the town. He said repayment of the bond was the responsibility of the company. “We are just a conduit. It is through the Finance Authority of Maine,” he explained. He said if approved, the town would be able to get a more favorable financing package for the company. “They [the Finance Authority of Maine] would make the decision based on the strength of the company,” the town manager explained.

A new company in town would mean a diversified economy, Harriman said. Right now Domtar Inc.’s pulp and paper mill is the town’s single largest employer. “We need opportunities to diversify,” the town manager said.

He said he had contacted the governor’s point man for economic development, Dave Flanagan to solicit the governor’s help. Flanagan was in Calais a few weeks ago meeting with business leaders to talk about the governor’s plan to create economic development Down East. Flanagan’s mission is to identify the historic and existing economic barriers faced by Washington County and identify new business and investment opportunities.

Basalt uses

According to a Web site for Reade Advanced Materials, an international supplier of higher technology specialty chemical compositions for customers in a wide range of major industries, typical applications for basalt include use with crushed stone in concrete aggregate; “railroad ballast, production of high quality textile fibers, floor tiles, acid-resistant equipment for heavy industrial use, rock wool, basalt plastic pipers, basalt plastic reinforcement bars, basalt fiber roofing felt (ruberoid), basalt laminate used as a protective coating, heat-insulating basalt fiber materials, glass wool (fiber glass), etc.”

The company also listed the following uses:

. Basalt is the best reinforcement for concrete because of its tensile strength and natural resistance to deterioration from alkali.

. Reinforcement for composites, polyester-epoxy resins and plastics as used in automotive body panels, boat hulls and pultruded products.

. Friction materials such as brake pads and linings.

. Manufacture of basalt mat-felt.

. High-temperature insulation applications.

. Passive fire protection materials.

. Filler for gypsum and sheet rock board requiring increased burn-through capability, to meet building regulations.

. High-performance automotive muffler filler.