Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 07 June 2010 – Fortress Specialty Cellulose Ltd., a  wholly owned subsidiary of Fortress Paper Ltd., has signed a purchase agreement with Stora Enso Oyi Cellulose Inc. to acquire digesters, specialized process equipment, and other ancillary equipment to be used in the conversion of its Thurso mill to produce dissolving pulp.

The agreement provides for a purchase price of EUR 3 million (CAD 3.8 million) and includes the purchase and delivery of a complete displacement cooking plant consisting of three batch digesters, liquor accumulators, and various associated specialty process equipment and piping.

Chad Wasilenkoff, chief executive officer of Fortress Paper, commented: “After spending a considerable amount of time assessing and evaluating the equipment, we are very pleased to be able to secure this equipment. This equipment has operated for only 12 years and we are confident of its quality and performance, which should result in a material reduction in our overall capital investment requirements for the conversion to dissolving pulp. We also believe that by acquiring almost an entire batch cooking system, we reduce the process risk for this transformation. At this time it is still too early to determine the impact this new equipment will have on the completion date.”

Fortress Paper is a leading international producer of security and other specialty papers and products. Fortress Paper operates three mills, the Landqart mill in Switzerland, the Dresden mill in Germany, and the Fortress specialty cellulose mill in Quebec, Canada. Fortress Paper’s security papers include banknote, passport, and visa papers, and its specialty papers include nonwoven wallpaper base products, and graphic and technical papers. Fortress Paper’s pulp business will include northern bleached hardwood kraft pulp with the restart of the Fortress mill, with plans to convert this capacity into dissolving pulp production along with the construction of a biomass-based cogeneration plant.