Photo by: Bloomberg
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian uranium producer Cameco and mineworkers had reached a tentative deal that could end a two-week-long lockout at the world’s largest uranium mine, the McArthur River mine and Key Lake mill, in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin.
Cameco on Friday explained that it expected the 535 workers represented by the United Steelworkers Local 8914, to start the voting process late this month, with results expected early in October.
The company noted that the union bargaining committee had recommended that members vote to accept the agreement.
The union and Cameco had agreed to withdraw the strike and lockout notices issued on August 26, and preparations were under way to return workers to the sites and safely resume production while continuing to protect the environment.
Negotiations began in November 2013 and had been ongoing since the previous four-year collective agreement expired on December 31. In July, Cameco and the union jointly applied for conciliation under the Canada Labour Code.
Unionised workers were flown off the sites on August 29, five hours before a strike deadline. The operations were maintained in a safe, shutdown state by salaried Cameco employees and unionised personnel under essential-services agreements with the union.
The labour disruption was not expected to affect the company's full-year uranium delivery commitments to customers. Cameco highlighted that it could draw on various supply sources, including primary production and existing purchase commitments and inventories.
McArthur River is the world's largest high-grade uranium mine. Ore grades within the deposit are 100 times the world average, which means the operation can produce over 18-million pounds of uranium each year by mining only between 150 t/d and 200 t/d of ore.