__NOTOC__ The Gunnar Mine was a

uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

mine in northern

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a province in western Canada, bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and on the south by the U.S. states of Montana and North Dak ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

located around southwest of the community of

Uranium City Uranium City is a northern settlement in Saskatchewan, Canada. Located on the northern shores of Lake Athabasca near the border of the Northwest Territories, it is above sea level. The settlement is northwest of Prince Albert, northeast of ...

, and approximately 600 km north of Saskatoon. The mine was situated on the Crackingstone Peninsula on the north shore of

Lake Athabasca Lake Athabasca (; French: ''lac Athabasca''; from Woods Cree: , "herethere are plants one after another") is located in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake ...

in the Beaverlodge Uranium District. The Gunnar deposit was discovered in July 1952, and the mine operated as both an

open pit Open-pit mining, also known as open-cast or open-cut mining and in larger contexts mega-mining, is a surface mining technique of extracting rock or minerals from the earth from an open-air pit, sometimes known as a borrow. This form of minin ...

(1955–1961) and

underground Underground most commonly refers to: * Subterranea (geography), the regions beneath the surface of the Earth Underground may also refer to: Places * The Underground (Boston), a music club in the Allston neighborhood of Boston * The Underground ...

(1957–1963). The mine ceased production in 1963. The Gunnar Mine headframe was demolished on August 4, 2011 but not decommissioning in any meaningful way. As of 2020, the mine was being decommissioned by the

Saskatchewan Research Council The Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) is a provincial treasury board crown corporation engaged in research and technology development on behalf of the provincial government and private industry. It focuses on applied research and development pr ...

who have a license to operate the site until 2024. In 2019 the

Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC; french: Commission Canadienne de sûreté nucléaire) is the federal regulator of nuclear power and materials in Canada. Mandate and history Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission was established under t ...

inspection found overall good performance, but some errors with regards to controlling radioactive zones and labeling radioactive materials. These non-compliant acts were descried as having "low safety significance," but issued enforcement notices

Geology

Gunnar Mine geologic map and cross section

The Gunnar uranium deposit occurred in Precambrian altered

granitic A granitoid is a generic term for a diverse category of coarse-grained igneous rocks that consist predominantly of quartz, plagioclase, and alkali feldspar. Granitoids range from plagioclase-rich tonalites to alkali-rich syenites and from quartz- ...

gneiss Gneiss ( ) is a common and widely distributed type of metamorphic rock. It is formed by high-temperature and high-pressure metamorphic processes acting on formations composed of igneous or sedimentary rocks. Gneiss forms at higher temperatures a ...

Pitchblende Uraninite, formerly pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the uranium causes t ...

was mined to a depth of between 1955 and 1963.

References

External links

* * * *{{cite web , url=http://www.saskcleans.ca/html/mine_sites/Gunnar/index.cfm , publisher=Cleanup of Abandoned Northern Sites (CLEANS) , title= Gunnar , access-date=2009-12-12 Uranium mines in Canada Mines in Saskatchewan Surface mines in Canada Underground mines in Canada Lake Athabasca Uranium City, Saskatchewan Northern Saskatchewan Administration District

Geology

See also

References

External links