Why would you drive all the way from McArthur River to McClean Lake just to start the mill back up?
AREVA is proposing to haul ore from McArthur River about 950km to McClean Lake for the following reasons:
- AREVA had to put the McClean Lake mill into care and maintenance mode, which led to layoffs at site at in the Saskatoon office. By starting the mill with McArthur River ore, we can bring people back to work sooner.
- McClean Lake mill will eventually process high grade ore from the Cigar Lake mine. Processing ore from McArthur River would allow the McClean Lake mill to be properly commissioned to handle Cigar Lake ore, when it’s ready in approximately 2013.
Why not just build the road to Cigar? Why go to all the trouble of doubling back for a total round trip of 950 km?
Hi Jason,
The short answer is “it’s all about timing”. We require the ore slurry from McArthur River to re-start the McClean Lake mill and commission the high-grade ore circuits about a year ahead of the start of production of the Cigar Lake mine. The Cigar Lake ore will be processed at McClean Lake. This would mean that the dedicated short road would have to be ready by approximately mid 2012. A road connecting McArthur River and Cigar Lake (the portion between Cigar Lake and McClean Lake already exists) requires the province of Saskatchewan to undertake environmental impact and detailed engineering in addition to construction. Although the Province has already submitted a proposal to construct the road, the environmental impact review and the actual road construction will take longer than the 2-year time span we have before we need to start hauling the ore slurry to re-start the McClean Lake mill. We can not predict exactly when this short road would be completed. If it is completed before the end of our short-term haul, we would definitely use it. This long haul of ore slurry from the McArthur River mine to the McClean Lake mill will last no more than 3 years.