Preparation is underway for the startup of construction this summer at the old distillery plant to transform it into an ethanol production plant, ready to roll by May of next year.

Top company representatives from NorAmera BioEnergy, along city officials, were on hand for a tour of the old distillery by federal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale on Friday morning, along with two candidates vying in the federal election, Liberal Lonny McKague and Conservative Ed Komarnicki.

The minister was on hand for the tour as this plant project was one of two approved for a grant for ethanol production in Saskatchewan, with seven approved across Canada.

"I'm really pleased there were two projects approved in Saskatchewan, the only province with two. This is something that's scalable too. We started off with a $120 million program, and when it's all done, if it works and there's no reason why it won't, we'll keep it going," said Goodale.

Brad Hill, president and Chief Operating Officer of NorAmera, explained the process will require the company to use 67,000 tonnes of feed wheat a year, worth roughly $9-10 million, to be used to produce 25 million litres of ethanol fuel, and 23,000 tonnes of distillers' grain and solubles. The ethanol in the Weyburn plant will be produced using many of the fermenting vessels already in place, with additional vessels and a state-of-the-art controlling centre yet to be installed.

NorAmera CEO Gord Scraper said later that half of the ethanol production has already been purchased by Petro-Canada.

The Weyburn ethanol facility will provide for 20 jobs directly, along with spinoff benefits such as sourcing the grain from the local area. Construction will be handled by Dominion Construction, the same company responsible for the recent major project to deepen Wascana Lake in Regina.

The construction will double the current capacity of the plant (which currently at about 10-12 million litres), so several vessels to be used in the fermentation process are still to be brought in.

Once production is rolling, the plant will be taking in four super-B trains of grain every day to drop off wheat, and two trucks of ethanol will be going out every day, along with one truck of distillers' grain.

Hill indicated a big plus of the Weyburn distillery plant is that it was built with expansion in mind.