Name and Location
Cigar Lake uranium mine project, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Client
The Cigar Lake mine is 50.03%-owned by operator Cameco and 37.1% by Areva, while Idemitsu Canada Resources and Tepco Resources own minority stakes.

Ore from Cigar Lake will be processed at the McClean Lake mill.

The mill is 70%-owned by Areva Resources Canada, while Denison Mines holds a 22.5% stake and Ourd Canada the remaining 7.5%.

Project Description
Cigar Lake is the second-biggest high-grade uranium deposit in the world.

It has total compliant proven and probable reserves of 537.1-million tonnes grading 18.3% uranium oxide (U₃O₈), containing 216.7-million pounds of U₃O₈.

The Cigar Lake uranium deposit occurs at depths ranging from 410 m to 450 m below the surface, where the water-saturated Athabasca sandstone meets the underlying basement rocks.

To prevent water from entering the production areas of the mine and to stabilise weak rock formations, the orezone and surrounding ground will be frozen by circulating a brine solution through cased holes, drilled from surface and underground.

The jet-boring mining method was selected for the Cigar Lake deposit after extensive testing.

Operated from tunnels in the basement rock below the orebody, the method entails using high-pressure water jets to mine out cavities in the orebody.

Ore and water will be piped away from the cavities to underground processing circuits, where it will be ground, thickened and pumped to the surface for transportation to Areva Resources Canada’s McClean Lake mill for processing to uranium concentrate.

Net Present Value/Internal Rate of Return
The project has an estimated pretax net present value calculated from January 1, 2012, at an 8% discount rate, of $1.4-billion and a pretax internal rate of return of 32.8%.

Value
The project is estimated at C$2.6-billion.

Duration
Cigar Lake declared commercial production in May 2015.

Latest Developments
Cameco’s Cigar Lake project is likely to meet its 2016 production outlook of 16-million packaged pounds of U₃O₈ – eight-million of which belong to Cameco – following approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission to increase the yearly licensed production capacity at the McClean Lake milling operation from 13-million pounds to 24-million pounds U₃O₈.

Ore from the Cigar Lake mine is milled and packaged at the McClean Lake operation, majority-owned and operated by Areva Resources Canada, which initially applied for the capacity increase at McClean.

The Cigar Lake mine is expected to reach its full yearly production of 18-million pounds in 2017.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
The TSX- and NYSE-listed miner has suffered several setbacks in developing the mine over the years, as frequent flooding and problems with freezing the earth around the underground passages delayed production.

Contact Details for Project Information
Cameco director of investor relations Rachelle Girard, tel +1 306 956 6403.
Areva, tel +331 34 96 12 15, fax +331 34 96 16 54 or email press@areva.com.