Aurora announces expansion of Medicine Hat facility

By Collin Gallant on April 10, 2019.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com
@CollinGallant

Aurora Cannabis will greenlight an expansion of its Medicine Hat facility before the initial massive phase is complete, the company announced on Wednesday morning. The revelation comes ahead of a planned afternoon media tour of the 1.2 million-square-foot project.

In April 2017, the Edmonton-based company announced it would construct “Aurora Sun” in the Hat to produce cannabis for the medical and recreational markets.

Described as the largest such greenhouse in the world, it also included potential to expand by about one-third on land it acquired in the Box Springs Business Park.

On Wednesday the company says initial phase construction is progressing well, installation of window glass will begin next month, and a 400,000-square-foot expansion will follow in the construction plan.

That will bring the total square footage of the planned facility to 1.62 million. More details are expected this afternoon.

“Aurora Sun represents the next evolution in our Sky Class facility design, delivering massive scale, low cost production, and consistent, high-quality cannabis,” said Terry Booth, the CEO of Aurora, in a release. “The increased scale of Aurora Sun reflects our expectations for the long-term growth in global demand, especially the higher margin international medical markets which will be faced with significant supply shortages for the foreseeable future.”

The company expects to be producing cannabis in segmented growing rooms while other rooms are still under construction.

The release also states that the company has marked Medicine Hat as a production facility and that further processing and refining would take place at other facilities in Alberta, such as the recently announced Aurora Polaris facility near its growing facility in Leduc and the Edmonton International Airport.

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