(Cameco.com)

By paNOW Staff

COVID-19

COVID-19 concerns prompt Cameco suspension

Mar 23, 2020 | 5:00 PM

There has been another blow to the already beleaguered uranium mining sector in northern Saskatchewan with the announcement Cameco is temporarily suspending production at its Cigar Lake operation. The move will affect many of the 300 workers on site although at this stage they’ll continue to be paid.

In a media release the company said, in part, it would place the facility in safe care and maintenance mode due to the threat posed by the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among Cameco’s workforce at the present time.

The operation will be ramped down over the coming days and placed into care and maintenance for four weeks, the company said. During this time, Cameco will assess the status of the situation and determine whether to restart the mine or extend the care and maintenance period.

The precautions and restrictions enacted by the federal and provincial governments, the significant degree of concern among leaders in remote isolated communities of northern Saskatchewan, and the increased challenges of maintaining the recommended physical distancing at fly-in/fly-out sites were critical factors Cameco considered in reaching this decision, the media release said.

“We are in unprecedented and challenging times,” Cameco President and CEO Tim Gitzel was quoted in the media release. “In the face of great uncertainty, our first priority is to protect the health and well-being of our employees, their families and their communities. Our leadership team took a measured approach and weighed many factors in assessing the situation both globally and locally to make this decision, which takes into account the specific and unique circumstances at Cigar Lake, a remote, isolated fly-in/fly-out northern Saskatchewan operation.”

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Four weeks of pay for affected workers

Later, Gitzel told paNOW affected workers would be paid for the four week suspension of operations.

“We say we’ll suspend operations for four weeks, but we don’t know [for how long] for sure,” he said. “They’ll receive full salary and benefits; they’ve got enough stress already so we wanted to take that stress off them. We need these people, that mine is going to restart.”

Gitzel said the company had utility companies around the world that need uranium “to keep the lights on keep electricity going especially in these times. So, we’ll be looking at that, but again, the priority for us was the safety of the workers and their families,” he told paNOW.

At full production, there are typically around 300 highly skilled people working across the Cigar Lake operation at any given time, the majority being residents of Saskatchewan’s North. When the production suspension is fully implemented, a workforce of about 35 people at a time will remain on site to keep the facility in safe care and maintenance.

Cameco will be in full consultation with public health authorities to help develop the logistical plan to safely move workers at Cigar Lake off site and back to their home communities.

The company’s McArthur River and Key Lake operations have been closed since February 2018.

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panews@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow