Production resumes at Cigar Lake mine following two-week shutdown

It’s business as usual at the Cigar Lake mine once again, after two weeks of not producing the uranium concentrate that is used as fuel in nuclear reactors internationally.

In a release issued when the shutdown first occurred on July 1, Cameco said it was due to issues at the McLean Lake uranium processing facilities.

The processing facilities, operated by Orano, are located 70 kilometres northeast of the Cigar Lake mine.

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In its July 1 release, Cameco said the issues at McLean Lake were due to “operational challenges with its sulfuric acid plant that caused it to shut down in order to repair the issue.”

“With limited ore storage capacity at Cigar Lake, we have temporarily suspended mining activities until sufficient acid is available to allow processing to resume at McClean Lake,” the original statement read.

Now that the issues at McLean Lake have been resolved, production has resumed.

In a new release issued Tuesday, Cameco says the two-week shutdown hasn’t had an impact on the company’s production outlook for 2026, which remains between 17.5 million and 18.0 million pounds of U308, or uranium concentrate.

According to the Cameco website, since the Cigar Lake mine was first commissioned in 2014, it has produced 174.5 million pounds of uranium concentrate, using a jet-boring technique that was developed “specifically for this challenging deposit.”