BANGOR (AP) – A spruce mill in Dover-Foxcroft is looking to expand operations into the Route 2 corridor between Old Town and Lincoln with a new mill that will employ 50 to 70 people, its owners said Wednesday.

The new Pleasant River Lumber Co. mill is expected to begin operating late next year, with construction starting this fall on a site not yet determined, said Luke Brochu, a company owner and president.

The plan is contingent on the anticipated positive results of a resource study now under way to analyze the region’s forests and their long-term growth and removal prospects, Brochu said.

The mill’s startup goal will be to produce 50 million board feet annually with a single shift, with a second shift eventually added to create 100 million board feet, he said. The lumber will be shipped primarily to Richmond, Va., for use in housing construction.

Pleasant River is reviewing potential sites in Costigan, Enfield, Howland, Lincoln and Passadumkeag, Brochu said, and the company hopes to make a decision by August.

A modernization that will eventually enable the Dover-Foxcroft mill to produce 100 million board feet of spruce is due to be finished in July. The mill employs 90 people.

Dover-Foxcroft officials applied last month for a $400,000 Community Development Block Grant.

The goal is to extend public water to the lumber company as part of its $4 million expansion.

The Brochu group bought Pleasant River Lumber from Gerard Crete and Fils of Quebec in June.