Cigar Lake mine producing ore, careers
- EFN Staff | September 27, 2015
Cameco and AREVA have officially marked the start of production at the Cigar Lake uranium mine and McClean Lake mill at the mine site in northern Saskatchewan.
Cameco president and CEO Tim Gitzel, and Olivier Wantz, member of the executive committee and senior executive vice-president, mining and front end business group for AREVA, welcomed dignitaries including Saskatchewan Economy Minister Bill Boyd and community leaders from northern Saskatchewan, and led a tour of the underground workings.
“I thank all of our stakeholders and partners whose strong support helped us bring this rich and challenging deposit into production,” said Tim Gitzel. “This achievement took 10 years, great perseverance and technical creativity, and I commend the many people who contributed.”
“We are happy to celebrate these two major uranium mining assets in Saskatchewan, the Cigar Lake mine and the McClean Lake mill,” said Olivier Wantz. “Their successful operation demonstrates the determination and expertise of our employees to ensure the safe start-up and continued production.”
Mining at Cigar Lake began in March 2014. The first packaged uranium concentrate was produced in October 2014 at the McClean Lake mill which is majority owned and operated by AREVA Canada Resources Inc.
The ore body is located at depths ranging between 410 to 450 metres below the surface at the interface between dry basement rock and the water-bearing sandstone above. The ore zone and surrounding ground in the area to be mined must be frozen to prevent water from entering the mine and to help stabilize weak rock formations. The ore is removed using a jet boring method that mines out cavities in the frozen ore using a high-pressure water jet. There are now three JBS machines commissioned for use underground.
The mixture of ore and water from the cavities is collected in a piping system and pumped to underground grinding and processing circuits. Thickened ore slurry is then pumped to the surface where it is loaded into tanker trucks and transported 70 kilometres to the McClean Lake mill for processing into uranium concentrate.
During 2015, through September 19, the McClean Lake mill processed and packaged 6.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate from ore mined at Cigar Lake.
The Cigar Lake mine is owned by Cameco (50.025%), AREVA Resources Canada Inc. (37.1%), Idemitsu Canada Resources Ltd. (7.875%) and TEPCO Resources Inc. (5.0%) and is operated by Cameco. The operation employs more than 600 highly-skilled workers, with the majority being residents of Saskatchewan’s north.
The McClean Lake mill is owned by AREVA (70%), Denison Mines Inc. (22.5%) and OURD Canada Co. Ltd. (7.5%) and is operated by AREVA. The operation employs more than 350 highly-skilled workers. Half of the employees are residents of Saskatchewan’s north.