The BMI Group is a Canadian industrial infrastructure developer specializing in the adaptive reuse of idled pulp and paper mills. Rather than letting former industrial sites sit dormant, BMI redevelops them into shared-use hubs that host multiple tenants and industries — bringing capital, engineering, and site-development expertise to complex brownfield projects.

Bioveld North Inc. is the BMI Group subsidiary leading the Espanola project. It holds and operates the former Espanola Pulp Mill site today, with a team of approximately 30 people working in the community.

At the heart of the Pulp+ Platform is the potential restart of pulp and paper production. A restarted mill would produce approximately 800 air-dried tonnes per day of premium talc-free Northern Bleached Softwood Kraft (NBSK) pulp and 180 tonnes per day of specialty paper — with the facility engineered to expand over time.

What sets Espanola apart is where it competes. Rather than commodity pulp and paper, the mill would serve specialty medical and food-grade markets — medical wipes, hygiene papers, and food-contact packaging — where purity standards are strict and substitutes are limited. It's a large and growing space: the specialty paper market is roughly $18.9 billion today and projected to reach $31.1 billion by 2038.

Espanola is built for this. The site anchors one of the most productive fibre baskets in Northern Ontario, with a rich boreal softwood supply that ranks among the most versatile and lowest-carbon industrial feedstocks available. Before its closure, the mill supported 19 Ontario sawmills — six of which relied on Espanola for roughly 75 percent of their wood-chip sales. A restart doesn't just reopen a mill; it reconnects a regional forest economy.

• Stage 1 complete (strategic case)
• Stage 2 complete (preferred option)
• Stage 3 underway (detailed design)

Bioveld North is currently assessing the viability of restarting the mill through Front-End Loading (FEL) — a disciplined, staged planning process used for major industrial projects, built on a simple principle: spend more time and less money early, so the project is defined, costed, and de-risked before construction begins.

The first two stages confirmed that the project makes strategic and economic sense and identified the most feasible technical and commercial option. The project is now in the third and final planning stage: a $10.5 million detailed engineering and design program, supported by two grants: a $5 million grant through the Innovative Bioproduct Manufacturing and Modernization Stream and a $100,000 grant through the Biomass Pathways Stream of Ontario's Forest Biomass Program, alongside a $5.4 million contribution from Bioveld North. This work will refine the cost estimate and inform future construction and procurement decisions.

Restarting pulp production is a long-term undertaking, and we will share updates with the community as milestones are reached.

Not yet. Bioveld North holds and operates the site with a team of approximately 30 people, and is currently completing the engineering and design work needed to determine the feasibility of a restart.

The timeline depends on the results of the current engineering studies. Restarting pulp production is a staged, long-term process, and we will share updates with the public as information becomes available.

An estimated 400 direct and 2,000 indirect jobs once operational.

The current $10.5 million engineering program is supported by two grants: a $5 million grant through the Innovative Bioproduct Manufacturing and Modernization Stream and a $100,000 grant through the Biomass Pathways Stream of Ontario's Forest Biomass Program, together with a $5.4 million contribution from Bioveld North.

We're committed to keeping the community up to date as the project progresses. Sign up for updates here — and watch this page for announcements about future community sessions.