Cigar Lake

2004 - 2014

©Permission Granted Cameco Corp Copyright Files

Scope

“Located in northern Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin, Cigar Lake is the world’s highest grade uranium mine. The uranium grades of the mineral reserves are over 100 times the world average for uranium deposits.…

In December 2004, the CLJV decided to proceed with development of the Cigar Lake mine and received a construction licence from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC) that same month. Construction began in January 2005, but development was delayed due to water inflows in April and October 2006, and an additional water inflow in August 2008.

In October 2009, Cameco successfully sealed the August 2008 inflow, and the underground workings were dewatered in February 2010. Safe access to the 480 metre and 500 metre levels was restored and the restoration of underground mine systems and infrastructure was completed in 2011.

With the mine re-entry and remediation milestone attained, construction of the permanent underground infrastructure began and was substantially complete in 2013. Staged commissioning of the JBS machine and supporting underground circuits began shortly thereafter, with the first commissioning cavity mined in barren rock in October 2013, and first ore cavity mined in December 2013.” [1]

As a Cameco employee, James provided engineering technical leadership to support the detailed design and completion of the project between the years 2004 to 2014. The icons to the right only indicate areas where James and team members worked. The Cameco major projects and site projects team completed many other projects concurrently. James was also directed to manage special projects with respect to tunnelling, mine production and ground freezing with other staff experts and consultants. Additionally James was part of a team that completed a root cause analysis, causal factor identification and implementation of corrective actions along with Cigar Lake project team and operations team members. The outcome of this work was not only to strengthen the Cigar Lake site but also processes of the whole organization.

[1] Technical report titled “Cigar Lake Operation, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada”, dated March 29, 2016 with an effective date of December 31, 2015.

Value Engineering and Project De-Risking

Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG)

Scale

“The CLJV’s investment, on a 100% basis, to the time of first production in March 2014 at Cigar Lake was approximately $2.9 billion for construction, remediation and standby costs.” [1].

[1] Technical report titled “Cigar Lake Operation, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada”, dated March 29, 2016 with an effective date of December 31, 2015.

Megaproject (>$ 1 Billion) construction value

Results

“…The first shipment of ore slurry to McClean Lake occurred in March 2014, and the first yellowcake was packaged in October 2014. With the completion of commissioning of all circuits attained and sustainable, and acceptable performance demonstrated, commercial production was declared in May 2015. Since that time, mine operation has been focused on achieving the production ramp-up to full nameplate capacity.” [1].

The Cigar Lake Project and Operations teams have won many awards in both safety and innovation including the APEGs Exceptional Engineering /Geoscience Project Award for the Cigar Lake Inflow Abatement in 2011.

[1] Technical report titled “Cigar Lake Operation, Northern Saskatchewan, Canada”, dated March 29, 2016 with an effective date of December 31, 2015.