(Submitted photo/Cameco)

By Glenn Hicks

mining

Cigar Lake mine set for September resumption

Jul 29, 2020 | 5:00 PM

Uranium miner Cameco plans to restart its operation at Cigar Lake in Northern Saskatchewan at the beginning of September, meaning a return to full pay for 170 employees who were sent home because of COVID-19 concerns.

The announcement came as the company issued its second quarter financial results. The shutdown of the Cigar Lake operation since March has cost Cameco $37 million in additional care and maintenance costs, which contributed to an overall loss of $53 million for the period, although spot prices for uranium were up by around 35 per cent over the pre-COVID prices as supplies dwindled among producers around the world.

“We’ve been waiting for this day for some time,” company spokesperson Jeff Hryhoriw told paNOW. “We believe the situation in northern Saskatchewan has stabilized to the point where we can increase workforce numbers and resume production while maintaining that workforce safety.”

He stressed they were “certainly not out of the woods yet in terms of the risk posed by COVID-19,”… and recognized the situation around the pandemic remained fluid, so the company could quickly adjust plans if the circumstances warranted it.

As far as the economic impact across the North, Hryhoriw said 150 employees had continued to work during the production suspension – some from home – but 170 remained off work. They received full pay for the first four weeks but were on 75 per cent pay after that. Once they return to the site the workforce will be back up to the full 320 complement.

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He credited the leadership across the North for helping to ensure the virus had remained contained.

“The community leaders have taken the pandemic very seriously by doing a great job in helping to keep the numbers low, and that in part has helped to increase our comfort level where we can attempt a restart here,” he said.

One of the communities that provides workers at the Cigar Lake mine is Hatchet Lake First Nation. Chief Bart Tsannie welcomed the news of the planned resumption of operations.

“People want to be back to their jobs because without work it’s very hard at home,” he told paNOW.

Tsannie said everyone across the region had played a role in creating an opportunity to restart the mine.

“It’s not just the First Nations but all the people including Cameco, and we’ve worked very hard together to stop the spread of the virus. We’re always taking precautions and we’re going to keep working together.”

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glenn.hicks@jpbg.ca

On Twitter:@princealbertnow