City shopping industrial park vacancy

A basalt fibre plant may not be in the works for Timmins after all.

Mayor Steve Black alluded to the situation Tuesday night, involving Chinese investors and development of an insulation plant at the east end’s rail industrial park.

“Some (things) don’t come to fruition,” he told council, “We’ve reached the point with the basalt company, which is why we’re re-shopping the industrial complex.”

“We’ve told them ‘We’re no longer holding this property for your development.'”

“If you come, great. But you haven’t taken enough concrete steps to move that project forward and we’re going to advance other projects that are knocking on the door, waiting to move into the build stage if you’re not ready to do that.”

Last year, Black was in China to sign a ‘friendship city’ agreement with Yi Zheng City, a city of 600,000 people and the home of Jiangsu Tianlong Continuous Basalt Fibre Company’s current insulation manufacturing facility.