New Saskatchewan Uranium Mine

[Brought to you by COGEMA, who, a) re-process more plutonium than anyone outside Russia, and b) ship it all around the world, and c) have polluted a big chunk of coastline on the Bay of Biscay]......


PUBLICATION The Saskatoon StarPhoenix 
DATE Saturday April 4, 1998 
PAGE A3 
BYLINE Varcoe, Chris 


New mines approved 



The provincial and federal governments have given their approval to two new uranium mines in Saskatchewan's North which will produce almost 20 per cent of the world's total uranium by 2005. 
Saskatchewan Environment Minister Lorne Scott announced Friday the province will give the green light to the Cigar Lake and Midwest uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan. 
"The projects as proposed . . . can be developed, operated and decommissioned in an environmentally acceptable manner," he said. 
As part of the announcement, Scott said: n mine operators must provide detailed monitoring, analysis and reporting on the performance of a mill-tailings management facility at the nearby McClean Lake mine; 
the operators must still apply to the federal Atomic Energy Control Board for regulatory approval; 
the province will negotiate with Ottawa to share the $10-15 million costs required to clean up two old mine sites near Uranium City that were abandoned in the 1960s (the Lorado and Gunnar mines); discussions will continue with northern leaders about the thorny issue of revenue sharing. 
The new projects are expected to generate $2.4 billion in economic activity in Saskatchewan and create 500 full-time jobs. 
The massive Cigar Lake deposit, located about 650 kilometres north of Saskatoon on the southwestern tip of Waterbury Lake, was discovered in 1981. 
The $410-million underground mine will tap into reserves of 353 million pounds of uranium, with an average grade of 13.6 per cent U3O8 (commonly called yellowcake). Production will begin in 2001 and the project has an estimated life of 39 years. 
Cigar Lake Mining Corp. is owned by Cameco Corp. of Saskatoon (48.8 per cent), along with the French government's Cogema Resources Inc. ( 36 per cent), Idemitsu Uranium Exploration Canada Ltd. (13 per cent) and Korea Electric Power Corp. (two per cent). 
The smaller Midwest Project, about 700 kilometres north of Saskatoon, has reserves of 34.3 million pounds of uranium, grading at 4.5 per cent.
Production should begin in 2004 and last six years. 
A joint federal-provincial panel rejected the Midwest project in 1993 due to environmental concerns, saying the benefits were " insufficient to balance the perceived risks." 
The renewed project is 56 per cent owned by Cogema, along with Uranerz Exploration and Mining (20 per cent), Tenwest Uranium Ltd. ( 19.5 per cent) and OURD (Canada) Co. (4.5 per cent). 
The new mines will help set up the uranium sector into the next century, said Tim Gitzel, Cogema's senior vice-president. 
"It's the future of the uranium industry in Saskatchewan," he said from Saskatoon. "I'm not sure people realize how big of an announcement this is today." 


The Saskatoon StarPhoenix 
PUBLICATION The Saskatoon StarPhoenix 
DATE Saturday April 4, 1998 
PAGE A5 
BYLINE Parker, James 


New mines a potential waste site, say critics 


In giving the go-ahead to the Cigar Lake and Midwest uranium mines, the federal and provincial governments have also approved development of a potentially hazardous waste disposal site, says the Saskatchewan Environmental Society. 
"The panel (which approved the projects) described the tailings facility as potentially one of the most dangerous facilities for the disposable of toxic waste in Canada," Peter Prebble, a spokesperson for the society, said Friday. 
"I concur with the panel. It will have long-lived radioactive material that will be active for thousands of years into the future. There will also be arsenic and nickel there." 
Both Ottawa and the province approved the two mines Friday. The projects will now must get regulatory approval. 
Cigar Lake is the bigger mine of the two. Located about 660 kilometres north of Saskatoon, it will cost more than $400 million to build and involve remote control mining of extremely rich uranium ore. 
Cameco Corp. owns 49 per cent of the project and Cogema Resources holds a 36.3 per cent stake. 
Three other companies own much smaller shares. Cogema owns a majority share in the $80-million Midwest mine, located 700 kilometres north of Saskatoon. 
The uranium mined at Cigar Lake, Midwest and the McClean Lake will be milled at McClean Lake. 
Waste produced during the milling process will be stored in JEB tailings management facility at McClean Lake. 
In its report on the Midwest mine, a joint federal-provincial environmental panel struck to review uranium projects in northern Saskatchewan said the JEB facility would be potentially among the most dangerous waste dumps in Canada. 
The panel called for perpetual monitoring of the site. 
Prebble said any problems with tailings management at the site should be addressed in the licensing process. 
But he noted the two governments haven't indicated whether they agree perpetual monitoring should take place and how it would be carried out. 
Prebble also had concern about Cogema's involvement in the two projects.
The company, owned by the French government, has been criticized by both the panel and the Atomic Energy Control Board ( AECB) for its management of the Cluff Lake mine in northwest Saskatchewan and its attitude.
In particular, the AECB has expressed concern about the radiation programs and tailings storage at Cluff Lake. 
The board recently gave Cogema a nine-month extension of its operating licence at the mine. 
"I don't think Cogema's track record was good enough for the province to approve this," said Prebble. 
"What confidence can we have in this company?" Prebble also said there are serious questions about Cogema's role in the production of nuclear weapons. 
The same agency which manages the company also produces nuclear weapons for the French government. 



PUBLICATION The Financial Post 
DATE Sat 04 Apr 1998 
EDITION Weekly 
SECTION/CATEGORY 1, News 
PAGE NUMBER 1 
BYLINE Peter Kuitenbrouwer 
STORY LENGTH 560 


Cameco victor in uranium mine fight 


Tearing up a seven-year study that recommended a lengthy delay, the Saskatchewan and federal governments Friday approved plans to mine the world's largest known uranium deposit. 
``I am confident that the conditions established by this approval will serve to protect the environment,'' Saskatchewan Environment & Resource Management Minister Lorne Scott told a news conference at the legislature in Regina. 
The decision clears the way for two mines, Midwest and Cigar Lake, about 800 kilometres northwest of Regina. Cigar Lake, the larger of the two, is a joint project of Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp., which has a 48% interest, and French government-owned Cogema Resources Inc., with 36%. 
But chemist Don Lee, head of the federal-provincial panel that recommended the delay, said: ``I think what they're proposing to do is very dangerous. 
``They seem reluctant to do the research first,'' he said Friday. 
The firms estimate the Cigar Lake body holds about 385 million pounds of the uranium compound known as yellowcake. 
``We're pretty happy. It's good news for us and good news for Saskatchewan,'' said Cogema senior vice-president Tim Gitzel. 
The joint panel said the province should approve the mines only after Cogema tested how much arsenic would leach from tailings the firm plans to dump in a mined-out pit. Lee said that would take at least two years. 
``I'm not very confident in the disposal facility,'' Lee said. ``Either in the engineering or the management.'' 
Ottawa and Regina nixed the delay with Friday's decision, although Saskatchewan said the companies must study ways to improve environmental protection in the mining process. The final go-ahead for the mines still requires an okay from the Atomic Energy Control Board. 
``The government does not agree with the panel's condition that experiments be conducted to determine the long-term acceptability of the tailings management facility before starting to deposit the tailings,'' said a release from the office of Ralph Goodale, federal natural resources minister. 
Goodale's spokesman David MacInnis said: ``We believe that the companies have shown that they have the expertise to construct and operate it and AECB has the authority to shut things down if there are any concerns.'' The decision caps a high-voltage struggle over the mine plans that's sizzled in Saskatchewan for seven years. 
Pushing the deal is France, which counts on nuclear power for most of its electricity needs, and Cameco, the world's largest publicly traded uranium miner. 
On the other side stand researchers, northern Saskatchewan's Dene Nation and AECB, all of which have questioned Cogema's environmental record. 
Recently, AECB nixed licence applications at Cogema's 20-year-old Cluff Lake mine due to rising radium levels, overflowing tailings ponds and the company's failure to write an acceptable plan to protect miners from radiation. Cameco does not have any stake in Cluff Lake. 
In the fall of 1996, exhausted by five years of battling Cogema, two of five members walked off the joint panel reviewing the Midwest and Cigar Lake mines. 
``Cogema is interested in short-term profits, not the long-term interests of the North,'' said one of those who quit, Dr. Annalee Yassee, head of the environmental health unit at the University of Manitoba. 
In its final report last November, the panel said it had a ``lack of confidence in [Cogema's] managerial and scientific competence'' and pointed out the firm's ``obvious dismissive attitude toward the regulators.'' Cameco stock (CCO/TSE) fell 25 cents to $43.25 on Friday. 


ADDED KEYWORDS: Uranium; Mining; Environmental assessment; Saskatchewan 


CORPORATE NAME: Cameco Corp. (TM/CCO, N/CCJ); Cogema Resources Inc. 


The Financial Post 

Michael D. Wallace
Department of Political Science
University of British Columbia
phone:(604)822-4550, fax:822-5540

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