The economic cost of COVID-19 is hitting northern Saskatchewan — causing closures and lost jobs. Cameco’s shutdown of the Cigar Lake mine, combined with that of partner company Orano Canada’s McClean Lake mill, are now taking place. Real and far-reaching impacts of these closures have started to hit home.
Cameco corporation announced in March that the company is temporarily suspending production at Cigar Lake uranium mine and is placing the facility in care and maintenance mode due to the threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Impact on the ground is starting to play out.
Cameco Corp is the biggest publicly traded uranium company in the world and accounted for 18 per cent of production worldwide in 2015. It is also an economic staple for north Saskatchewan. Cameco’s partner, Orano Canada Inc., simultaneously shuttered its McClean Lake mill where ore from Cigar Lake is processed.
“A large portion (about 50 per cent) of Cigar Lake’s workforce comes from the surrounding communities and First Nations in northern Saskatchewan, which are likewise remote and isolated, with limited health services,” Jeff Hryhoriw, director of government relations and communications at Cameco Corporation told National Observer.
“These realities would greatly compound the problems a COVID-19 outbreak would present, so we need to take every precaution to ensure we don’t inadvertently become a point of transmission into these communities,” Hryhoriw said.
Cameco has ceased commercial ore extraction at Cigar Lake mine. It is moving already extracted material through the remainder of the process.
The total workforce at Cigar Lake is about 320 Cameco employees and another 240 contractors. In care and maintenance mode, the total workforce will drop to about 75, split across two shifts.
All impacted Cameco Cigar Lake employees will continue to receive their regular pay and benefits during the four-week care and maintenance period, but Cameco says it can’t speak for the contract workers, since those arrangements would be up to their employers.
The Cameco shutdown also meant closing the partner mill where the ore from Cigar Lake is processed. The workforce at McClean Lake mill is being reduced from 160 to 50 during maintenance. Orano Canada and its partners in the McClean Lake joint venture operation are also shutting down and “will work to determine the restart date and conditions in due course.”
“This is a difficult time for many and we understand the concerns we are hearing,” Orano Canada Inc. president and CEO Jim Corman said in a statement.
