McArthur to McClean » News

CNSC to Review McClean Lake Licence Amendment under New Model

AREVA — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:50:15 +0000

The McClean Lake Mill in Northern Saskatchewan is the only mill in the world designed to process high-grade uranium ore without diluting it.

With the recent Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC ) approval of the Environmental Assessment for the haul and processing of McArthur River ore slurry to the McClean Lake mill now in hand [see post dated May 8th, 2012], AREVA is proceeding with the amendment to the Operating Licence for the McClean Lake mill.

The CNSC’s Uranium Mines and Mills Division (“UMMD”) has informed AREVA it will be moving McClean Lake into its new licence model referred to as the “Licence Condition Handbook”, being used for other CNSC licensed facilities such as nuclear power plants.

The UMMD is targeting the CNSC Public Hearing for the amendments and approval of the new licence format in September 2012. For more information on CNSC Public Hearings and how to become involved, please see: http://www.cnsc-ccsn.gc.ca/eng/getinvolved/index.cfm

CNSC Approves Environmental Assessment for McArthur River Ore Haul

AREVA — Tue, 08 May 2012 22:10:50 +0000

On April 20, 2012 AREVA received approval from the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission for the environmental assessment (EA) of its proposed project to mill a portion of the ore slurry from the McArthur River mine at its McClean Lake mill. The Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment had previously approved the EA in December 2011. This project proposes to haul a portion of ore slurry from McArthur River to McClean Lake on existing roadways. If required, this project will use uranium slurry from McArthur River to commission the high-grade circuit at McClean Lake. This high-grade circuit was previously built to mill the ore from the Cigar Lake mine but has remained unused due to production delays at Cigar Lake. If necessary, this commissioning using McArthur River ore slurry would consist of two truckloads of ore slurry per week beginning in spring 2013 and lasting approximately four months.

Federal Court of Appeal Unaniously Dismissed the Athabasca Regional Government’s Judicial Review of the McClean Lake Licensing Decision

AREVA — Fri, 04 May 2012 18:36:44 +0000

On March 5, 2012 the Federal Court of Appeal heard the appeal by the Athabasca Regional Government (“ARG”). In its decision the Federal Court of Appeal unanimously dismissed ARG’s appeal, who alleged certain breaches of the Crown’s duty to consult with Aboriginal peoples in relation to the 2009 renewal of the McClean Lake Operating Licence by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). Following the ruling, ARG has 60 days to seek Leave to Appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Leave to appeal is only granted by the Supreme Court of Canada when it deems the matter is of national importance.

The CNSC’s news release on the matter can be read here.

We are invested in Saskatchewan’s north

AREVA — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 20:28:29 +0000

It has been a while since our last post. We have quietly been very busy.

Here are the highlights on some of our major projects and events. In the coming days and weeks we will detail each of them in separate posts so stay tuned!

The Federal Court of Appeal Unanimously dismissed the Athabasca Regional Government’s Judicial Review of the McClean Lake Licensing Decion.
We are completing the licensing and environmental assessment processes to allow the milling of a portion of ore slurry from the McArthur River mine at our McClean Lake Mill.
We have applied to the CNSC to amend the McClean Lake Operating Licence to operate the high-grade circuit within the McClean Lake mill and to add McArthur River ore slurry as an approved ore source.
We have submitted a Project Description to the federal and provincial regulators for the JEB Tailings Management Facility Expansion project.
AREVA and its McClean Lake joint venture partners agreed to process 100% of the ore from the Cigar Lake mine at the McClean Lake mill.
We are proceeding with a $150 million upgrade to the McClean Lake mill to expand its annual production capacity to 24 million pounds of uranium to accommodate the ore coming from Cigar Lake and other sources at McClean Lake.
We are continuing with the regulatory approval process for the Midwest Project. This process is now in its 7th year, however we are hopeful that we will receive approval from the authorities in the fall 2012.
Although the Cluff Lake site has been decommissioned, we continue our routine mainteance and environmental monitoring activities. There have been no reportable spills at Cluff Lake since September 2004.
We agreed to sell our 27.9% ownership in the Millennium Project in northern Saskatchewan to Cameco Corporation for $150 million. The agreement provides us with a 4% royalty on revenue from 27.9% of any production from the Millennium deposit that exceeds 63 million pounds.
This winter we welcomed a dozen northern residents at our McClean Lake operation for the Pre-skills Training Program in partnership with Cameco Corp., Northern Career Quest and the Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technology.
We started our Mill Operator Training Program targeted at residents of northern saskatchewan. They should all graduate at the end of May.
We are hiring! Over 50 positions to fill by year end. Visit our website at www.arevaresources.ca/careers to see our latest postings or stop by our La Ronge Office to talk to Glenn.

More information to come on each of these items in upcoming posts.

Open House Coming to a Community Near You!

AREVA — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 22:06:05 +0000

Aboriginal and Public Involvement Program – See the Reports

AREVA — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 22:26:41 +0000

One of the principles of AREVA’s Corporate Social Responsibility is to engage with the leadership of Aboriginal people, municipal representatives and the general public in a manner that recognizes their interest in AREVA’s business, to understand how AREVA’s operations may potentially affect their interests, and how their interests may be accommodated by AREVA. We are committed to working with the general public and Aboriginal people who are interested or may be potentially affected by our projects, so their rights are respected. To do this we are committed to interact with the public and Aboriginal people in a transparent manner, with mutual respect and honesty.

In keeping with the above commitments, we are pleased to provide our Aboriginal and Public Involvement Program (APIP) Strategy document as well as the related reports describing the content and results of our APIP during the first three phases of our public engagement efforts between Spring 2009 and Fall 2010. The APIP strategy and the reports can be reviewed and downloaded on this blog right in the download section.

If you have any questions and/or comments about these documents don’t hesitate to send them to us using the contact section on this blog.

Fixing Up Highway Creek Bridge!

AREVA — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 21:59:41 +0000

While visiting with comunity leaders and members during 2010, we repetedly heard people identify a number of specific road improvement suggestions. One of these suggestions was that the bridge over Highway Creek, west of La Ronge on Highway #2, needed to be fixed up as it appeared to be “sagging”.

Our commitment to the community people we met in 2010 was that we would communicate all the concerns they raised about the roads to the officials at the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure – we kept that commitment. We brought community concerns to Ministry officials and to the Minister himself.

We were very pleased to discover in February 2011 that the Highway Creek bridge was being repaired to addressed the issues Northerners had identified. The efforts and hard work undertaken by the Department of Highways and Infrastructure to meet the residents of Northern Saskatchewan’s expectation are commandable. We would encourage Northerners to continue to communicate with us and with government officials to ensure that issues are brought forward and that highways and infrastructure work the way they were intended to.

As stewards of Saskatchewan’s North we all play a role in bringing improvements to the region.

Environmental Impact Statement Submitted to the Regulators

AREVA-admin — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 20:35:29 +0000

On January 10, 2011 we submitted our Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Receipt and Processing of McArthur River Ore at the McClean Lake Operation to the federal and provincial regulators. This EIS was prepared in response to the regulators’ Project-Specific Guidelines, as well as the feedback we received while travelling across Saskatchewan’s North last year. You can find a copy of the EIS main document and appendices as well as the Project-Specific Guidelines here. The EIS is now undergoing technical review by the regulators, and will also be sujbect to a formal public comment period. We will let you know on this blog as soon as the public comment period dates are made available by the regulators. In the meantime, we continue to welcome your input and feedback on this document and would be pleased to answer your questions.

You can post comments/questions here, email mcarthurtomcclean@areva.ca, or call the regulatory coordinator, Carolanne Inglis-McQuay at 306-343-4555.

The Best Drivers Around

AREVA-admin — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 17:38:10 +0000

Safety is one of our core values, and ensuring the public’s safety on the road is very important to us. One of the ways we can ensure road safety is by requiring that those that haul goods for us are some of the best drivers around. Many of the drivers have more kilometres on the northern roads than you and I will ever see, but at a minimum, these are some of the basic standards:

Drivers must have a Class 1 A licence, long combination vehicle licence, 5 years or more of B-train experience and clean driver’s abstract
Must take a Professional Driver Improvement Course every 4 years and an interactive training program using simulated driving scenarios
Are trained with WHIMIS, radiation safety, uranium ore slurry product specifications and are certified in Transportation of Dangerous Goods
Are required to stop every two hours as per standard operating procedures.
Must try as best as possible to have only one truck on a bridge at one time
Must slow down when meeting other vehicles on the road, including passenger vehicles
Radio each other about road conditions and other vehicles on the road

Have you ever wanted to hop in a semi truck? Now is your chance – watch this video.

Just How Wide Are The Roads?

AREVA-admin — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 17:35:16 +0000

A common question people asked on our northern road show was, “are the roads wide enough for the trucks?” We have done our research, and can tell you yes, the roads are wide enough. To help you visualize the roads, we drew, to scale, trucks and local traffic passing each other on the roads. A particular point of concern was traffic on the Churchill River bridge. You’ll see that passing is still possible even when the road is 6.70 m wide. Semi trucks hauling goods to and from the mines and exploration sites are in constant communication and avoid crossing this bridge when other vehicles are on the bridge.

We want everyone to get home safely. The best way to ensure this, is by being a responsible driver and following the rules of the road. For a quick reminder of how to stay safe, watch this video.