Cameco has released its operating numbers for the latest quarter.
It is a mixed bag for the uranium giant as revenues were up 49% from 2012 over the past three months.
However, net earnings were below what they were last year.
Company president Tim Gitzel explains this is because of a weak start to 2013, something they were expecting.
Gitzel says planned maintenance shutdowns at Key Lake and Rabbit Lake also decreased some production.
Meantime, Cameco expects production to begin at the Cigar Lake mine later this year.
Chief operating officer Bob Steane says he is been visiting the mine weekly and preparations look good, but they have had to make some adjustments:
“So there’s some additional piping. We recognized we had increased our surface freeze area. We needed some additional freeze capacity, so we’ve added that. We’ve had some different development that we’ve had to do based upon the ground conditions we’ve encountered — and that’s changed some of the scope at Cigar Lake.”
Despite the nuclear disaster in Japan, Cameco says the nuclear industry is still expected to grow — with 12 new reactors expected to begin construction this year