Skeena sawmill owners have set a deadline to have the plant up and running at full capacity.

Roc Holdings management consultant Gian Sandhu says the plant has set the target of November 5th to have the plant fully operational.

Until then, they plan to continue to train staff and test the equipment.

Plant manager, Don Macdonald says they're currently testing two lines of log processing.

"November 5th we'll have two lines running. We're running both lines now, checking optimization, throughput numbers, recovery numbers and sawing accuracy."

After November, Sandhu says the company will invest in new equipment and hire even more staff.

"I would say it takes six-to-eight months definitely to train good crews coming forward for the second shift, and during that process and during that time we'll also be looking at new equipment coming in. So about a year to 15 months."

Sandhu says the plant will create 100 direct jobs once it is running at full-capacity and the company plans to hire locally.

The sawmill was bought last year by the BC company, Roc Holdings, after it shut down in 2007.