AREVA May Re-route McArthur Ore

AREVA May Re-route McArthur Ore

Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at 12:27

AREVA says it’s thinking of trucking uranium ore from the McArthur River mine to the processing facility at McClean Lake.

The journey, which includes travelling through several northern communities, is 920 kilometres.

Company spokesman Alun Richards says the reason for the move would be to keep staff at the McClean Lake facility busy while they wait for the Cigar Lake mine to begin operations.

Currently, ore at McArthur River is processed at the nearby Key Lake processing facility.

Richards says he doesn’t believe there is any extra danger involved in trucking the un-processed ore through the north.

“The only difference in these is the longer route. (It’s) the same containers, the same response contigency plans that we have. The containers are very robust and have been tested against accidents… and they’re very strong. We haven’t had an incident yet. So we don’t foresee any problems, but we plan for those types of things in our emergency response planning,” Richards says.

Richards says the idea is still being worked out, but the company has already held some preliminary discussions with the regional Environmental Quality Committees.