Uranium production halted at Cigar Lake
Canada’s largest uranium producer will continue to pay employees at its flagship mine in northern Saskatchewan while it is shut down for at least four weeks amid growing fear about the COVID -19 pandemic sweeping the globe.
Cameco Corp. announced plans to temporarily close its Cigar Lake mine, located about 600 kilometres north of Saskatoon, after markets closed Monday. In an interview, the company’s CEO said the decision was made out of an abundance of caution.
“We don’t want to wait until something happens and then have to react,” Tim Gitzel said of the decision, which is expected to result in the on-site workforce at the flyin mine being reduced to 35 from about 300 over the coming days.
“They live together, they eat together, they work together … That’s a lot of people in a really confined site. We have to fly in, fly out in airplanes. Obviously keeping the physical distance, the social distance in planes is not easy. It was just really a culmination of those things.”
Cameco made its decision in conjunction with Orano Canada Inc., which is suspending work at its nearby Mclean Lake Mill, where ore from Cigar Lake is processed. “We are all in this together,” Jim Corman, the CEO of the French company’s subsidiary, said.
It is not clear what effect the closure will have on Cameco’s bottom line. The Saskatoon-based company has been deeply affected by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which curbed demand for nuclear fuel and sent prices into free fall nine years ago.
Gitzel said the company has uranium on hand and will work with its customers to “keep the lights on” around the world.
Uranium is an important commodity in the province’s north, where it has been described as the only economic game in town. Gitzel said there is “no issue” with continuing to pay employees and the company did not want to add any additional stress to their lives.
“We’re going to need them. We’re going to restart Cigar as soon as we can.”
Cameco and Orano are the first Saskatchewan mining companies to halt work in the face of the pandemic, which has forced the closure of countless businesses. Their decisions follow Dominion Diamond Mines ULC’S choice to close its Ekati mine in the Northwest Territories.
Most Saskatchewan potash mines are still operating, however.
Nutrien Ltd.’s Vanscoy mine west of Saskatoon remains closed for repairs following a fire earlier this month; the company’s five other mines in the province, most of which are clustered around Saskatoon, are still producing fertilizer.
“We continue to work through and monitor the COVID-19 situation with the health of our workers and communities at our top priority. All of our other potash mines are in regular operations and are set to meet the market demand during what we still expect to be a busy spring season,” Nutrien spokesman Will Tigley said in an email.
Tigley said there have been no cases of COVID-19 within the company’s operations. As of Wednesday afternoon, there were a total of 86 reported cases in Saskatchewan. The number of confirmed cases is expected to grow in the coming days.
“People are concerned, obviously, about the unknown but are taking (precautions) seriously,” said United Steelworkers staff representative Darrin Kruger, whose union represents hundreds of potash miners across the province, including at Nutrien.
K+S Potash Canada is also continuing to produce potash at its solution mine near Bethune. Company spokeswoman Maeghan Dubois said precautions are in place, including all having all staff except “select operations” employees work from home and social distancing at the mine.
“At this time, we are still producing as planned and it is still too early to foresee the implications from this pandemic,” Dubois said in an email, adding that no KSPC employees have tested positive for COVID -19.
Mosaic Co., which owns three mines in the province, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, work is continuing at BHP’S new Jansen potash mine east of Saskatoon, where around 300 people are thought to be completing various projects before the company’s board of directors makes a final decision on if and when to bring it into production.