Cigar Lake goes commercial

Tuesday, 26 May 2015

The Cigar Lake uranium project in northern Saskatchewan is now officially in commercial operation, Cameco has announced.

Cigar Lake (Image: Cameco)

Commercial production signals a transition in the accounting treatment for costs incurred at the mine, including cycle time and process specifications. Cigar Lake met all of these criteria in May. This means that from 1 May 2015, all production costs, for the project, including depreciation, will be charged to inventory and subsequently recognized in cost of sales as the product is sold as disclosed the company's quarterly reports.

Mining at Cigar Lake began in March 2014, and the first processed product packaged in October 2014. The operation is expected to produce 6 million to 8 million pounds of uranium oxide (2308 to 3077 tU) this year, ramping up to full annual production rate of 18 million pounds per year (6920 tU) by 2018.

Cigar Lake is owned by Cameco (50.025%), Areva Resources Canada Inc (37.1%), Idemitsu Canada Resources (7.875%) and TEPCO Resources Inc (5.0%) and is operated by Cameco. Ore from Cigar Lake is processed at the McClean Lake mill, 70 km northeast of the mine site and operated by Areva Resources Canada.

Researched and written
by World Nuclear News