The McArthur River mine and Key Lake mill in northern Saskatchewan have started producing again. Submitted photo/Cameco 

By Doug Lett

Uranium Mine restarts production

Uranium mine restart seen as boost to economy

Nov 16, 2022 | 8:00 AM

A University of Regina economist said the return to production of a uranium mine and mill in northern Saskatchewan is a big boost to the province’s economy.

“A thousand jobs is going to be really significant, particularly for the northern half of the province,” Jason Childs, an associate professor of economics at the University of Regina, said.

Last week Cameco announced the first batch of uranium ore from McArthur River has been milled and packaged at the Key Lake Mill.

Production at the two sites had been suspended since early 2018 because of a weak market for uranium.

But 2022 has changed all that.

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“McArthur River and Key Lake are among the best and most prolific uranium assets on the planet,” Tim Gitzel, Cameco president and CEO, said in a news release.

“Market conditions have continued to strengthen… with growing geopolitical uncertainty adding to energy security concerns worldwide,” Gitzel said.

Childs said the war in Ukraine has disrupted natural gas supplies to Europe, and renewable energy sources like wind and solar are not working as well as hoped. That means nuclear is looking a lot more attractive.

“I think the game has really changed in nuclear’s favour, particularly since February,” Childs said. “It’s become clear that renewables aren’t quite ready to take the bulk of the load, particularly that baseload… the intermittency problem hasn’t been solved yet, the storage problems hasn’t been solved yet, so we need some other form of generation that’s going to be stable and reliable.”

Childs said until recently it looked like natural gas would fit the bill.

“That was the big fuel everybody seemed to be moving toward,” he said. “With the disruptions in the Russian market, I think you’re going to see a shift away from that natural gas baseload generation toward nuclear, which is going to be really good for demand for uranium. It solves some of the environmental problems. It comes with its own environmental issues, don’t get me wrong, but it solves the greenhouse gas problem and the base load problem at the same time.”

Cameco said about 730 people are working at the mine and mill, with additional hiring planned in the future. The company plans to product about two million pounds of uranium concentrate at the two sites this year, with up to 15 million pounds per year by 2024.

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doug.lett@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @DougLettSK