THE MCCLEAN LAKE FACILITY

The McClean Lake Facility is owned by Denison (22.5%) and its joint venture partners, Areva Resources Canada Inc. (ARC) (70.0%) and OURD (Canada) Co., Ltd. (OURD) (7.5%). ARC is the operator/manager of the facility.

McClean Lake Mill, Saskatchewan

The McClean Lake Mill, Saskatchewan


The McClean Lake mill is a state-of-the-art uranium mining and processing facility located on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan approximately 750 kilometres north of Saskatoon. The McClean Lake surface facilities consist of a modern mill licensed to produce 8.0 million pounds of uranium concentrate per year. The mill uses sulphuric acid and hydrogen peroxide leaching and a solvent extraction recovery process to extract and recover the uranium product from the ore. In addition to the mill facility, other infrastructure on the site includes a sulphuric acid plant, a ferric sulphate plant, an oxygen plant, warehouses, shops, offices and living accommodations for site personnel.

Interior of the McClean Lake Mill, Saskatchewan

The facilities have been expanded to permit the processing of ore from Cigar Lake; construction of this expansion was substantially completed in 2007. Cigar Lake, which was originally scheduled to begin operations in 2007, is now expected to commence mining in 2011 at the earliest. Though Denison has no ownership in the Cigar Lake project, it will benefit from the receipt of toll milling fees and significantly reduced operating costs due to economies of scale. In the meantime, the MLJV benefits from the use of this expansion, which has turned the McClean Lake mill into one of the largest, most technologically advanced uranium mills in the world.

In 2007, the McClean Lake mill processed ore principally from the Sue E deposit and produced approximately 1.9 million pounds of U3O8, of which Denison’s share was 429,000 pounds. Production in 2008 is scheduled to increase to approximately 3.2 million pounds (Denison’s share: 720,000 pounds), with the mill feed consisting principally of Sue E ore and the remaining stockpiled Sue A ore.

The table below shows the operation of the McClean Lake uranium facilities over the last five calendar years of production:

 

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

Ore Milled (thousand tonnes)

170

131

177

152

132

Average Grade (% U3O8)

0.53

0.68

1.45

1.86

2.07

Production (thousand pounds U3O8)

1,905

1,795

5,490

6,005

6,028



Jeb Tailings Management Facility, Saskatchewan

The JEB open pit mine was converted into the JEB Tailings Management Facility (TMF) after mining was completed in 1997. The facility was designed with a 25-year capacity that will allow it to accommodate the tailings from the processing of ore from McClean, Cigar Lake and Midwest.

JEB Tailings Management Facility, McClean Lake, Saskatchewan

JEB Tailings Management Facility, McClean Lake


Storage of mill tailings in an environmentally acceptable manner is a priority with the MLJV. The tailings are deposited subaqueously in a paste form from a barge to minimize tailings segregation, eliminate concerns of freezing and dust generation and control of radiation and radon emissions, ensuring that no contaminants escape into the general environment. Seven years of operation has consistently produced results that are better than applicable regulatory targets. Studies are underway with a view to making the Sue E pit a new tailings management area thereby increasing the tailings capacity, which will ensure the continued operation of the McClean mill for several more decades.


Last updated April, 2008.