Production Resumes at McArthur River Mine
Thursday, July 03, 2003 at 14:35
Production has resumed almost a month ahead of schedule at a Northern Saskatchewan uranium mine that had to shut down because of flooding.
Operations at the McArthur River mine came to a halt April 6th when an excess inflow of groundwater started to flood the mine.
Over 200 workers are employed at the mine – most of them are from northern communities. Despite earlier fears the flooding would lead to layoffs, Cameco officials say the company was able to keep its permanent full-time employees working with the clean up effort.
The area where the water entered the mine has now been filled with concrete and should be permanently sealed off by mid-August.
The mine is not yet at full production, but the company expects that will happen within the next 2 weeks.
The down time has cost Cameco between 12 and 15 million dollars in net profits.