PORT ANGELES – A mill in Port Angeles shuttered for a year and a half, could open a year from now.

McKinley Paper Company announced yesterday it hopes to restart operations at the former Nippon Paper mill on Ediz Hook in September next year.

The mill has been shut down since McKinley purchased it from Nippon in spring of 2017.

McKinley says it is working to retool the facility to make cardboard products from recycled paper. The Nippon mill made newsprint and telephone directory paper.

In the announcement, the company says it also is improving some of the maritime infrastructure at the plant. It also plans to again start operating the attached co-generation biomass plant to produce energy.

There’s no word on what employment levels may be once the mill restarts.