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The Bear Island newsprint manufacturing mill in northern Hanover County is being closed, affecting 165 employees, its parent company announced Wednesday.

White Birch Paper Co., a Connecticut-based company that owns the plant, said it plans to idle paper-making operations at the local mill indefinitely.

The company said it will supply customers, which include the Richmond Times-Dispatch and other Virginia publications, from its three other paper mills in Canada.

The Bear Island mill produces about 240,000 metric tons of newsprint annually. The plant, located just south of the Kings Dominion theme park, opened in 1979. It underwent an expansion in 1994 that added a recycling plant that turns old newspapers into pulp to make newsprint.

The company said the 165 employees of its Bear Island mill were notified Wednesday of the pending closure. The final date of operations will be announced shortly, the company said.

Employees will be given severance payments and job placement services, a spokesman said.

White Birch blamed the closure on “difficult market pricing, challenging cost fundamentals and declining demand.”