TORONTO (miningweekly.com) - Areva Resources Canada, Denison Mines and OURD Canada will put their McClean Lake uranium mill, in Saskatchewan, on care-and-maintenance in July 2010.

The mill began operations in 1999, was recently expanded to handle ore from Cameco and Areva's beleaguered Cigar Lake uranium project.

The Cigar Lake mine flooded during construction in 2006, and again during dewatering in August last year. The latest leak has since been plugged and dewatering has restarted, but Cameco has refused to provide an estimate of when production could eventually start.

Other nearby projects owned by the McClean Lake joint venture, including the development of the Caribou, Midwest and McClean North deposits, are also on hold.

Denison said that it expects the mill to produce about 1,86-million pounds from stockpiled ore before it is idled in 2010.

At the time of mill shutdown there will be approximately 114 900 t of low grade ore on the stockpile available for processing when economically viable, the company said.

The joint venture will retain staff to maintain a set of key competencies and to maintain the mill ready to re-start to process ore from the Cigar Lake mine or if the other projects start production.

Areva Resources Canada owns 70% of the McClean Lake joint venture, Denison holds 22,5% and Ourd Canada owns 7,5%.

Shares in Denison fell 5,07% on Wednesday morning, to C$1,31 apiece by 11:47 in Toronto.

The company also has uranium operations in the US, some of which have been put on care and maintenance, as well as projects in Zambia and Mongolia.

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