New Forests’ chief executive says Gunns Ltd’s proposed $2.5 billion pulp mill project in Tamar Valley never had any real chance of getting off the ground, after the timber land fund manager excluded the mill in its deal to acquire 100,000 hectares of Tasmanian timber plantations and two woodchip mills from the defunct company.

The Sydney-based company is understood to have paid about $330 million for Gunns’ timber plantations, mills, a nursery and a timber fibre technology lab at Ridgley, although the sale price was not disclosed.