Cameco announced Monday it will not meet its 2013 production targets at the Cigar Lake mine.
The uranium company says it has discovered some small water leaks in its run of mine area tanks which has forced it to delay production at the site until early 2014.
Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel says although the company is certainly not happy about the delay, it is not willing to compromise safety.
“We all understand how important Cigar Lake is to the nuclear industry,” he says. “We are absolutely committed to bringing the project safely to production and so our partners at Areva and we won’t cut corners to make it happen.”
The company says it will reinforce the run of mine area tanks with steel lining to prevent further leakages.
Cameco had forecast production of 300,000 pounds of uranium ore slurry at Cigar Lake in 2013.
It is also expected that processing of ore at Areva’s McLean Lake mill will not begin until the second quarter of 2014.