The chief of the English River First Nation in Northern Saskatchewan will be meeting with Cameco officials this week, but she is not overly concerned about the company s decision to put a major project on hold.
Citing world market conditions, Cameco has withdrawn its application to build a new mine in Northern Saskatchewan.
The Millennium mine project would have been located 600 kilometers north of Saskatchewan with estimated reserves of more than 50 million pounds of uranium.
The problem is the high cost of production at a time when world prices have hit artificial lows.
Cameco spokesman, Gord Struthers, says the market will have to turn around, it is just a matter of time.
“The long term prospects are very good, there is an unprecedented reactor construction program under way, not just in China and India but other countries as well, so reactors are going to require uranium fuel and there is only a few places where they can get it and we are one of them”.
The English River First Nation has signed a 600 million dollar collaboration agreement with Cameco to support wages, contracts and other payments for the band.
Chief Marie Black says even though the Millennium mine is on hold, Cameco has three other mines in the area including Key Lake, Cigar Lake and McArthur River.
She says the First Nation is already benefiting from its collaboration deal with Cameco.
Chief Black will be meeting with mine officials later this week for more details on the company s decision to delay the project.
She says the extra time will help the reserve develop a workforce.
“So we are preparing and once that mine is open we won t have to say, whoa we are not ready, so it gives us a lot of leeway for the training in the apprenticeship areas”.
The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission says Cameco can still ask the commission to consider its license application at a later date.