Midwest Mine Project Overview
The Midwest Project, located 17 kilometres west of the McClean Lake operation in
northern Saskatchewan, will comprise an open pit mine and a utility corridor to move
ore and treated mine water to the McClean Lake site. The Midwest ore will be processed
at the McClean Lake JEB mill.
The main features of the Midwest Projects include:
- Dewatering the Mink Arm of South McMahon Lake
- Digging an open pit mine covering 44 hectares (900m north to south and 350m east to west)
- Construct a transportation and utility corridor between Midwest and the McClean Lake site (17km)
- Constructing maintenance shop, offices, water treatment plant and dewatering well ring around the open pit mine
- Building waste rock management areas
- Modifying the McClean Lake existing JEB mill to facilitate milling of Midwest ore and increase the mill capacity
- Performing physical works associated with the fish habitat compensation plan as a result of the dewatering of Mink Arm
Once started the Midwest project would last approximately 6 years for construction and
mining of the ore deposit and provide a supply of ore for 5 to 8 years of milling at the
McClean Lake JEB mill. It is anticipated that about 150 jobs would be created during
construction and about 120 jobs during the mining phase.
However, due to economic factors, such as low uranium prices and increased development
costs, the Midwest project has been postponed. Nonetheless, the environmental assessment
process and engineering activities are still continuing to allow the project to proceed
when market conditions improve.
Midwest Project Ownership
AREVA 69%
Denison Mines Inc. 25%
OURD Canada Co. Ltd. 6%
Operator: AREVA Resources Canada Inc.
