Pumping next week at Cigar Lake

Monday, 30 June 2008

Cameco is to begin pumping water from the flooded Cigar Lake mine next week.

 

The uranium mine, which should be the biggest in the world when it enters operation, was flooded by a rockfall in October 2006. Groundwater rapidly entered the mine tunnels but was not held back by bulkhead doors as had been planned for such an emergency situation. Personnel evacuated and after some hours the water had completely filled the mine, causing what is likely to be a two-year delay costing around C$92 million ($90 million).

 

Cameco announced earlier this year that its operations to isolate the source of the groundwater with a concrete plug had been successful and it had been able to reduce the water level to 100 metres below the surface. The entire mine is 465 meters deep. The company's plans to pump out all the water that fills the mine and inspect the mine afterwards have been approved by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and the Saskatchewan provincial government.

 

Once the pumping operation begins next week, Cameco should be able to begin work towards equipping the mine with a ladderway, ventilation ducting and power and communication cables. All this infrastructure had previously been in place but was ruined by the flood.

 

Cameco is the operator of the mine and leads the entire project with a stake of 50%. The other stakeholders are Areva Resources Canada (37%), Idemitsu Canada Resources (8%) and Tepco Resources (5%). "2011 at the earliest" remains the estimated start-up date for the 7000 tonne per year uranium mine.