Uranium Recycle Project
Cameco is seeking approval for remilling two recyclable products from the Blind River refinery and Port Hope conversion facilities in Ontario, at its Key Lake operation in northern Saskatchewan. This approval would constitute a change to the mill feed component of the Key Lake operation. The purpose of remilling is to recover the uranium content of the uranium bearing products which are in a dry powdered form similar to the material that is fed into a stage of the milling process called the leach circuit. The recyclable products contain approximately 4% uranium. The majority of the uranium in these recyclable products is from Saskatchewan mines.No changes to the mill circuit, other than an addition point in the leach circuit, are required and no expansion of the Key Lake capacity is being sought. The maximum annual production of recyclable product (about 1500 tonnes) represents approximately 0.7% of the average annual Key Lake mill feed, by weight, and in total corresponds to approximately 2.5 days of normal Key Lake milling per year. The material would be blended in with McArthur River ore along with existing blend material, resulting in a small net gain in uranium production without an increase in the overall rate of effluent production. Based on the predicted life of the McArthur River mine (about 20 years), this recycling proposal could be considered to increase the life of the McArthur River by an equivalent of only two months production.
Recycling Between Facilities
Cameco presently recycles material within each of its facilities and believes that recycling between facilities will:
- maximize resource use and recovery,
- ensure proper management of its activities to prevent pollution and limit environmental impacts to levels as low as reasonably achievable, and
- improve the overall environmental performance and economic viability of its operations in Canada.
Recyclable products from Cameco's fuel services have been milled in northern Ontario and in the United States for over 20 years with no reported occupational health or environmental concerns. The material represents the concentration of the uranium in the yellowcake that is not captured during refining and processing at the Blind River refinery and Port Hope conversion facilities.
At present, the trucks hauling yellowcake to Ontario return either empty or with reusable yellowcake drums. In this plan, Cameco proposes to first fill a portion of those drums to be backhauled to Key Lake. Shipments would receive the same care, and be regulated in the same manner, as present day yellowcake shipments. On average, fewer than two trucks per week would return with recyclable product rather than with empty drums.