Cameco (TSX:CCO, Stock Forum) announced an update today regarding recent developments at the Cigar Lake uranium mine located in northern Saskatchewan.
According to the news release, the Cigar Lake uranium deposit sits at depths ranging from 410 to 450 metres where the water-saturated Athabasca sandstone meets the underlying basement rocks. In an effort to prevent water from entering the production areas of the mine and to help stabilize weak rock formations, the ore zone and the surrounding ground is being frozen by circulating a brine solution through cased holes drilled from both surface and underground.
The company has determined during monitoring the commissioning process that the freezing has not advanced as quickly as expected in some localized areas of the mine. Due to the fact that the McClean Lake mill has yet to start processing ore from Cigar Lake the company has decided to stop jet-boring at the mine to allow the ore body to freeze more thoroughly in the aforementioned areas.
The production schedule is expected to shift by a couple of months, meaning that ore milling will be shifted into early 2015 therefore affecting the company's 2014 production target. The company will provide an updated production target when it releases its Q2 MD&A on July 31, 2014.
Cameco was in the news recently when the company announced the date for its Q2 results and conference call at the end of June.
Shares were up 4.64% on the news to $21.63 per share.
Currently there are 395.8m outstanding shares with a market cap of $8.6 billion.