An official with Cameco says while the uranium market appears uncertain right now, the long-term picture bodes well for the future.
Grant Isaac spoke on Thursday at an investor’s conference in B.C.
He says while the disaster at Fukashima has resulted in temporary closures of several reactors in Japan there is still room for optimism.
For example he says enriched uranium that was originally destined for Russian and American weapons has now been totally used up:
“Because this is a secondary supply that the market was really counting on. 24 million pounds a year. To give you an idea of how much, that’s more production than McArthur River, the largest uranium mine in the world. That’s lost to the market.”
He says there are 7 billion people in the world yet nearly 2 billion have unreliable electricity.
Because of this he says demands on existing power-supplies will begin to double.
Meantime Isaac says Cameco has no plans to fire up production at the Cigar Lake mine, until a new ventilation and purging system are completely finished at the McLean Lake Mill.
He explains AREVA is currently putting in the new system, and should be ready to accept product by the end of the second quarter.
In the meantime he says everything looks ready to go at Cigar Lake:
“But of course a little bit hesitant to fire the beast up, if you will, because what we don’t want to do is stockpile slurry at the McLean Lake Mill. We need to be ready that it’s going to be dealt with because there is some storage there at the McLean Lake Mill and absolutely those storage tanks will be filled up but I don’t think you want to be storing slurry on the ground or anything like that.”
Isaac told investors the mining technique for Cigar Lake will be somewhat different than McArthur River due to the geology of the rock, but tests have been done on waste rock with a new jet-boring system and everything looks fine.