VANCOUVER (miningweekly.com) – A uranium mill processing high-grade uranium ore from Saskatchewan’s Athabasca basin has been granted a new ten-year licence to operate.
The McClean Lake mill is one of the most technologically advanced uranium mills in operation and is the only facility in the world designed to process high-grade uranium ore without dilution.
The mill is owned by the McClean Lake Joint Venture (MLJV), a JV between Areva Resources Canada (70%), Denison (22.5%) and OURD (Canada) (7.5%), with Areva being the operator.
The McClean Lake operations include several uranium deposits as well as the McClean Lake mill, which is currently operating and processing ore from Canadian uranium major Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine, under a toll milling agreement.
In 2016, the MLJV obtained regulatory approval from the CNSC to increase its production capacity of uranium to 24-million pounds a year. However, with the Cigar Lake mine expected to produce about 18-million pounds of uranium a year, the McClean Lake mill currently has excess licenced processing capacity of up to six-million pounds a year.
A 2016 preliminary economic assessment completed by Denison Mines for the Wheeler River project contemplates the use of the McClean Lake mill, on a toll milling basis, to process mine production from Wheeler River's Gryphon and Phoenix uranium deposits. The Wheeler River project is a joint venture between Denison (60%), Cameco (30%), and JCU (Canada) Exploration Company (10%).