Cameco starts producing U concentrate from Cigar Lake
2014-10-08 16:24 ET - News Release Shares issued 395,791,522 CCO Close 2014-10-07 C$ 18.56 Mr. Tim Gitzel reports FIRST URANIUM CONCENTRATE PRODUCED FROM ORE MINED AT CIGAR LAKE The McClean Lake mill has started producing uranium concentrate from ore mined at Cameco Corp.'s Cigar Lake operation in Northern Saskatchewan. The McClean Lake mill, operated by Areva Resources Canada Inc., recently completed modifications required to safely process the high-grade ore from the Cigar Lake mine. Cigar Lake ore is transported by truck to the McClean Lake mill located 70 kilometres northeast of the mine site for processing. Mining at Cigar Lake began in March, 2014. To date, Cameco has delivered about 1,400 tonnes of ore to McClean Lake. Mining was suspended in July, 2014, to allow the orebody to freeze more thoroughly. Mining resumed in the first week of September and ore deliveries to the mill are continuing. The mill is expected to produce up to one million pounds of uranium concentrate from Cigar Lake ore in 2014 and ramp up to its full production rate of 18 million pounds by 2018 (Cameco's share is nine million pounds). "Cigar Lake is among the world's richest and most technically challenging orebodies, and I congratulate all of the people who helped to bring it into production," said Cameco president and chief executive officer Tim Gitzel. "It provides Cameco with a large-scale low-cost production centre and positions us to take full advantage of the long-term growth we see coming in our industry." As at Dec. 31, 2013, the total capital cost of the Cigar Lake project was estimated at $2.6-billion. Up to 1,000 people worked at the site during construction, and the mine will employ more than 600 highly skilled workers during operation. The majority of the workers are residents of Saskatchewan's north. The Cigar Lake mine is owned by Cameco (50.025 per cent), Areva Resources Canada (37.1 per cent), Idemitsu Canada Resources Ltd. (7.875 per cent) and Tepco Resources Inc. (5 per cent), and is operated by Cameco. The McClean Lake mill is owned by Areva Resources Canada (70 per cent), Denison Mines Inc. (22.5 per cent) and OURD Canada Co. Ltd. (7.5 per cent), and is operated by Areva. Qualified person The above scientific and technical information related to the Cigar Lake mining operation was approved by Scott Bishop, manager, technical services, for Cameco, who is a qualified person for the purpose of National Instrument 43-101.