Paul Martin's Business Update - March 17th, 2014

Paul Martin's Business Update - March 17th, 2014

There was a big development in northern Saskatchewan last week when Cameco began extracting ore from the Cigar Lake mine.

This has been a long time coming. The deposit – about 450 meters underground – was first discovered in 1981 which provides an indicator of how long uranium mines take to production. The rules around these are unlike any other and approvals are measured in decades rather than years or months.

This is a big deposit but it is a challenging one. The company had to start over when it was flooded. But now it is using a new technique – freezing the ground around the deposit to prevent the water from heavily saturated rock leaking into the mining area.

It also is using a new technology for mining. Because of its purity, a mechanical – a sort of robot arrangement - system is being deployed to extract the ore to bring it to surface.

New mines in northern Saskatchewan are few and far between, but recent demand from electrical utilities operating reactors has rekindled interest in the industry, one that Saskatchewan is a dominant force in.

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