The McArthur River Uranium Mine, in northern

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan ( ; ) is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada, 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 t ...

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 to ...

, is the world's largest high-grade

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 ...

deposit. The McArthur River deposit was discovered in 1988. The property is located

as the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel ''Oliver ...

north of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

and northeast of the

Key Lake The Key Lake mine is a former uranium mine in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is north of Saskatoon by air on the southern rim of the uranium-rich Athabasca Basin. Key Lake was initially developed to open-pit mine two nearby uranium ore deposits: ...

mill in the uranium rich

Athabasca Basin The Athabasca Basin is a region in the Canadian Shield of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada. It is best known as the world's leading source of high-grade uranium and currently supplies about 20% of the world's uranium. The basin i ...

. Mine construction began in 1997, with production commencing in 1999. The mine achieved full commercial production in November 2000. Production is regulated at of

yellowcake Yellowcake (also called urania) is a type of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. It is a step in the processing of uranium after it has been mined but before f ...

a year with the ore being processed through the

mill. Between 2000 and 2013, the McArthur River/Key Lake operation produced U₃O₈. This production figure includes blended low grade stockpiles from the former Key Lake mine as well as ore derived from the McArthur River mine. Ignoring the fact that 2000 mostly saw a rampup to full scale production and the effect of the Key Lake mine ore, this averages to roughly yearly production or some 96% of the above-mentioned 18.7 million pound per year limit. In 2012, McArthur River was the world's largest producing uranium mine, accounting for 13% of world mine production. Canada, as a whole, produces 15% of the world's uranium production. In July 2018, citing continued low uranium prices, Cameco suspended McArthur River/Key Lake operations and placed the mine on care and maintenance. , the mine remains under care and maintenance. On February 9, 2022, Cameco announced it would reopen the mine.

Reserves

As of December 31, 2017, the mine had Proven and Probable Reserves of , with an average grade of 6.89% U₃O₈. At an average yearly production rate of this gives a calculated range of roughly 24 years.

Awards

During the most hazardous mining operations, remote controlled underground mining systems in this mine are used to reduce personnel exposure to rock

particulate Particulates – also known as atmospheric aerosol particles, atmospheric particulate matter, particulate matter (PM) or suspended particulate matter (SPM) – are microscopic particles of solid or liquid matter suspended in the air. The te ...

radon gas Radon is a chemical element with the symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive, colourless, odourless, tasteless noble gas. It occurs naturally in minute quantities as an intermediate step in the normal radioactive decay chains through ...

, and other hazards. A video detailing the operations at the mine is provided by Cameco. The McArthur River mine has been awarded the

Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum The Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum (CIM) is a not-for-profit technical society of professionals in the Canadian minerals, metals, materials and energy industries. CIM's members are convened from industry, academia and go ...

's John T. Ryan Trophy for the best safety record for metal mines several times. This award is given to the metal mine with the best safety record for the previous year.

Ownership

The mine is owned by

Cameco Cameco Corporation (formerly Canadian Mining and Energy Corporation) is the world's largest publicly traded uranium company, based in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 2015, it was the world's second largest uranium producer, accounting for 18 ...

(70%), and Orano Canada (30%) (formerly

Areva Resources Canada Orano Canada (formerly AREVA Resources Canada Inc.) is a uranium mining, milling, and exploration company headquartered in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Orano is a subsidiary of the Orano Group, an international nuclear energy company headq ...

, formerly COGEMA Resources Inc.)

is the mine operator.

Access

The mine is serviced by the

McArthur River Airport McArthur River Airport is located east of the McArthur River mine, Saskatchewan, Canada. See also * List of airports in Saskatchewan This is a list of airports in Saskatchewan. It includes all Nav Canada certified and registered water ...

to the northeast. It is also connected to the south by a restricted access haulage road. According to Google Maps, this road is

Saskatchewan Highway 914 Highway 914 is a provincial highway in the north-west and far north regions of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It begins at a turn in Highway 165 and officially ends at Key Lake mine. Highway 914 goes north through scenic parts of Sask ...

, however the official 2011 highway map of Saskatchewan indicates that 914 terminates at a checkpoint at Key Lake mine, while the road that continues to McArthur is not a public highway (owned by Cameco) and does not appear on maps.

Scale

Given that much of the uranium recovered here goes to fuel

CANDU The CANDU (Canada Deuterium Uranium) is a Canadian pressurized heavy-water reactor design used to generate electric power. The acronym refers to its deuterium oxide ( heavy water) moderator and its use of (originally, natural) uranium fuel. C ...

reactors which can forego

uranium enrichment Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...

, it is possible to calculate a

heating value The heating value (or energy value or calorific value) of a substance, usually a fuel or food (see food energy), is the amount of heat released during the combustion of a specified amount of it. The ''calorific value'' is the total energy relea ...

for the uranium mined at this mine. At a typical

burnup In nuclear power technology, burnup (also known as fuel utilization) is a measure of how much energy is extracted from a primary nuclear fuel source. It is measured as the fraction of fuel atoms that underwent fission in %FIMA (fissions per ini ...

of 200 MWh_thermal per kilo of heavy metalhttp://www.unene.ca/essentialcandu/pdf/21%20-%20In-core%20FM.pdf The yearly production of roughly is equivalent to roughly of uranium metal and per the above burnup value some (or the equivalent of ) of thermal energy can be produced from this much uranium in CANDU type reactors. For comparison, the

North Antelope Rochelle Mine The North Antelope Rochelle Mine is the largest coal mine in the world. Located in Campbell County, Wyoming, about south of Gillette, it produced 85.3 million tons of coal in 2019. Peabody Energy opened the North Antelope Mine in the heart of Wy ...

, the largest coal mine in the world, produces some of coal per year at a

of for an overall heat content of roughly .

References

External links

* * {{Nuclear power in Canada Uranium mines in Canada Mines in Saskatchewan Underground mines in Canada