Canadian uranium miner, Cameco has announced a temporary shutdown of the Cigar Lake mine as a precaution due to the proximity of a wildfire burning in the vicinity of the operation.
The situation in the in northern Saskatchewan is complicated by extremely warm, dry weather, resulting from the heat dome that has settled over western Canada in recent days, along with variable wind and smoke conditions. The company affirmed that all nonessential personnel had been evacuated, with about 230 workers having been transported offsite.
Cigar Lake Mine
About 80 essential personnel would remain on site to maintain the facility in safe state. The miner added that it had a site plan in place to ensure the remaining personnel’s safety, should the wildfire threat grow considerably. The Cigar Lake Mine is a large high-grade underground uranium mine, located in the uranium-rich Athabasca Basin of northern Saskatchewan, Canada. The deposit, discovered in 1981, is second in size of high-grade deposits only to the nearby McArthur River mine. Other deposits, such as Olympic Dam in Australia, contain more uranium but at lower grades.
The Cigar Lake mine accounts for about 13% of global production. Production at Cigar Lake has been suspended several times in the last year, mostly owing to Covid-19 measures. Construction was resumed in 2011 and uranium mining finally commenced in March 2014 following receipt of operating licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) in July 2013. The operating licence is valid until June 2021. The mine produced 0.34Mlb (million pounds) of uranium concentrate in 2014. Â The mine was idled between March 2020 and September 2020, and again between December and April this year.
