TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canada's Cameco Corp has renewed its strategic focus on uranium production, CEO Jerry Grandey told investors and analysts on Tuesday.

The group, which also has gold-mining, power generation and nuclear-fuel processing assets, has accomplished the vertical integration that it set out to achieve earlier this decade, and will focus on uranium mining for growth going forward, he said at an investor workshop, broadcast over the Internet.

Cameco aims to double its own production levels to 40-million pounds a year of the nuclear fuel by 2018, solely from its existing suite of assets.

The company will also continue to assess potential acquisitions, but will be disciplined and will not overpay for assets, Grandey said.

Cameco also still plans to sell its holding in Centerra Gold at an “appropriate” time, and will redeploy the proceeds of the sale back into its core uranium business.

The company also continues to work towards remediating its flooded Cigar Lake project, Grandey said.

The firm doesn't expect the reserves at Cigar Lake to be negatively affected by the water inflows and subsequent underground repair work at the mine, he said in response to a question.

Shares in Cameco gained 2,5% on Tuesday, to C$31,53 apiece by 15:59 in Toronto.

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