Cameco and AREVA officially marked the start of production at the Cigar Lake uranium mine and McClean Lake mill today at the minesite in northern Saskatchewan, Canada.
Cameco president and CEO Tim Gitzel, and Olivier Wantz, 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 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.
During 2015, through September 19, the McClean Lake mill processed and packaged 6.1 million pounds of uranium concentrate (U3O8) from ore mined at Cigar Lake.