MN Legislature May Offer $3 Million In Forgivable Loan To Help Restart And Convert Duluth Paper Mill

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota state lawmakers are working on a bill that would bring 80 or more jobs back to Duluth’s Verso paper mill.

The mill shut down indefinitely last summer, where 240 employees worked.

Verso may also be looking to sell the Duluth mill to another company.

This new measure would give the current or future operator up to $3 million as a forgivable loan, dedicated to helping convert the facilities to produce a different kind of paper product.

The owner would also need to keep at least 80 full-time employees on for five years and invest $25 million into the mill.

“They’re good-paying jobs in our district, and it has a ripple effect not just with employees at the mill but it impacts our loggers, our timber industry as a whole, our wastewater, our utilities so it has a big impact throughout the region,” State Rep. Liz Olson, DFL-Duluth, said.

The bill has bipartisan support.

Back in January of 2020, the Duluth City Council voted unanimously to give $242,000 to the mill as a forgivable loan.

At that time, the mill wanted to spend more than $34 million so it could convert to making other types of paper products.