Mention Wesley Vale and Burnie, and you immediately conjure memories of the fight over chlorine-based pulp bleaching four decades ago.

Now Spicers is drawing a line on that history, with the sale of its former Tasmanian mill sites at those locations.

Wesley Vale was the site of a controversial 1989 kraft pulp mill project, the subject of substantial local opposition because of the use of chlorine as the primary bleaching agent. It led to the publication of guidelines for TCF (totally chlorine-free) production.

Ahead of its sale to Kokusai Pulp & Paper, Spicers has sold its 56-hectare site of its Wesley Vale mill - which closed in 2010 - for $1.74 million, along with remaining land in Burnie, for which it obtained $2.85 million.

The $147 million deal with Kokusai Pulp & Paper is still subject to a shareholder vote.