Protavia plumps for one mill but Portland is unfazed

<p>Pulp mill developer Protavia, whose plans may boost both the road and rail transport task in western Victoria and southeastern South Australia, has ditched one of its two proposed mills.</p> <p>The Heywood mill, near Portland, was cut last week due to cost, electricity and gas issues.</p> <p>Protavia is now examining a larger mill in Penola with production capacity expected to top the original 1,000 tonnes a day mark.</p> <p>The Port of Portland was expecting about 350,000 tonnes of pulp a year from the mill, the ABC reported.</p> <p>But port spokesman Graeme Tivey said the expansion plans were never reliant on pulp being shipped from Portland.</p> <p>&#8220All the way along, we’ve been planning for either no pulp mills, one pulp mill or two pulp mills and we’ve covered those contingencies all the way along,&#8221 he said. </p> <p>&#8220But before we start the final set of detailed drawings, we need to know what’s going to happen with the pulp mills.&#8221</p> <br />