TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canada’s largest uranium operators Cameco and Areva Resources Canada, and local communities traditionally associated with the Cigar Lake, McClean Lake and Rabbit Lake uranium mining operations, have inked a new collaboration agreement that builds on the existing impact management accord signed in 1999.

Called the Ya’Thi Néné (“Lands of the North” in Dene), the collaboration agreement was signed on Canada's National Aboriginal Day, confirming the continued support of the communities historically and traditionally associated with the uranium mining operations.

The three First Nation communities of Black Lake, Fond du Lac and Hatchet Lake, as well as the four communities of Stony Rapids, Wollaston Lake, Uranium City and Camsell Portage, would benefit from the new five-pillared agreement focusing on workforce development, business development, community engagement, environmental stewardship and community investment.

“By working with industry, people living in the north have found ways to enhance the capacity and vitality of their communities, while protecting their traditional values and lands. This agreement assures that strong partnerships will continue,” said Cameco president and CEO Tim Gitzel.

Among the issues covered by the agreement, Cameco and Areva would continue to make use of community-owned businesses to meet service requirements; provide career awareness programmes and scholarship funding for community residents; establish local employment targets and hiring preference in consultation with the communities; create a business advisory committee; establish new structures to engage and inform the Athabasca residents on environmental and operational matters; sustain and enhance the community-based environmental monitoring programme currently overseen by the Athabasca Working Group; and provide funding to support the Ya’Thi Néné Land and Resource Office, which will serve as a point of contact for the companies on environment-related matters.

Further, Cameco and Areva would provide yearly production-based payments to a community-administered trust to be used for initiatives that would promote the health and wellbeing of residents, address housing needs, preserve language, culture and traditional practices, improve community infrastructure and generate education and economic opportunities for residents.

The agreement would be binding until the existing Athabasca basin operations of Cameco and Areva had been decommissioned.