Pre-start-up audit report confirms that Botnia's Fray Bentos mill will operate according to Best Available Techniques (BAT)

Pre-start-up audit report confirms that Botnia's Fray Bentos mill will operate
according to Best Available Techniques (BAT) 

To ensure that the key recommendations of the environmental and social impact
studies made on the Fray Bentos mill are appropriately implemented, Botnia and
the International Finance Corporation (IFC) have prepared and agreed on an
Environmental and Social Action Plan (ESAP) for the project. As part of this
Plan, Botnia and IFC wish to have independent confirmation that the Botnia Fray
Bentos mill will operate in accordance with the recommendations made in the
Cumulative Impact Study (CIS) by IFC. Botnia has retained AMEC Forest Industry
Consulting to carry out a pre-start-up audit to confirm that the mill follows
the recommendations of CIS. 

The audit was carried out in two phases, Phase I in April 2007 and Phase II in
August 2007 and the report has now been published. 

The main conclusions of the report are:

    * The mill project organization meets with the operational objectives
      including the environmental management goals. 
    * All process equipment and technology installed or planned to be installed
      is similar or equivalent to best available techniques as described in the
      CIS. 
    * The mill management team has an appropriate level of environmental
      awareness for a project of this type. 
    * There is a comprehensive personnel training programme in place and
      experienced staff are being used for start-up. 
    * The overall impression was gained of a well designed and generally well
      executed project, with competent and motivated staff. Modern process
      technologies are used that promise to perform with low emission and
      world-leading environmental performance. 

The entire report is available at our website, please click here to read it.