Mining
The Cigar Lake site is located about 660 kilometres north of Saskatoon.
The orebody is located at a depth of 450 metres between the Athabasca sandstone formation and the underlying Precambrian basement rocks. The orebody stretches for two kilometres on an east-west axis.
The orebody will be frozen before mining. This will improve ground conditions, prevent water inflow and stop radon migration. The ore will be removed from beneath the orebody using pressurized water through a process called jet boring. Mined out cavities will be backfilled.
Ore will be ground and thickened in underground processing circuits and pumped to the surface in slurry form. At the surface, the ore will be loaded in special containers and transported by truck to milling facilities.
Milling
Initially Cigar Lake ore will be processed at the mill located at AREVA's McClean Lake operation, 70 km to the northeast. As Cigar Lake production ramps up to full capacity, about half of the uranium will be transported as a solution to Cameco's Rabbit Lake operation for final processing after initial processing at McClean Lake. Using existing mills will reduce capital costs substantially and eliminate the need for a separate tailings facility. Wastes from the Cigar Lake ore will be processed and managed at the mill sites.
Mining and underground processing of Cigar Lake ore (4 minute animation).