Cigar Lake Operation Northern Saskatchewan, Canada
National Instrument 43-101 Technical Report
Effective Date: December 31, 2015 Date of Technical Report: March 29, 2016
PREPARED FOR CAMECO CORPORATION BY: C. SCOTT BISHOP, P. ENG. ALAIN G. MAINVILLE, P. GEO. LESLIE D. YESNIK, P. ENG.
Table of Contents
SUMMARY ...........................................................................................................................................
1
122334479
1.1 1.2
Preamble .................................................................................................................................... Introduction ................................................................................................................................. Property tenure ........................................................................................................................... Location and site description ...................................................................................................... Geology and mineralization ........................................................................................................ Exploration of Cigar Lake deposit ............................................................................................... Mineral resources and mineral reserves ..................................................................................... Mining ......................................................................................................................................... Processing ..................................................................................................................................
1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9
1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16
Environmental assessment and licensing ................................................................................... 10 Cigar Lake water inflow incidents and remediation .................................................................... 11 Current status of development ................................................................................................... 12 Production plan .......................................................................................................................... 12 Economic analysis and costs ..................................................................................................... 14 Mining and milling risks .............................................................................................................. 14 Conclusions and recommendations ........................................................................................... 14
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................ 18
2.1 2.2
Introduction and purpose ............................................................................................................ 18 Report basis ............................................................................................................................... 18
RELIANCE ON OTHER EXPERTS ............................................................................................. 20 PROPERTY DESCRIPTION AND LOCATION ....................................................................... 21
4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6
Location ...................................................................................................................................... 21 Mineral tenure ............................................................................................................................ 23 Surface tenure ............................................................................................................................ 25 Royalties ..................................................................................................................................... 27 Known environmental liabilities .................................................................................................. 27 Permitting ................................................................................................................................... 27
INFRASTRUCTURE AND PHYSIOGRAPHY .......................................................................... 28
5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5
Access ........................................................................................................................................ 28 Climate ....................................................................................................................................... 30 Physiography .............................................................................................................................. 30 Local resources .......................................................................................................................... 30 Mine and infrastructure ............................................................................................................... 31
i
HISTORY ............................................................................................................................................... 34
6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4
Ownership .................................................................................................................................. 34 Exploration and development history ......................................................................................... 35 Historical mineral resource and mineral reserve estimates ........................................................ 36 Historical production ................................................................................................................... 36
GEOLOGICAL SETTING AND MINERALIZATION .............................................................. 37
7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4
Regional geology ........................................................................................................................ 37 Local geology ............................................................................................................................. 37 Property geology ........................................................................................................................ 41 Mineralization ............................................................................................................................. 44
DEPOSIT TYPES .............................................................................................................................. 45
EXPLORATION ................................................................................................................................................... 46
9.1 9.2
AREVA 1980 – present .............................................................................................................. 46 Cameco 2007 – present ............................................................................................................. 51
DRILLING ............................................................................................................................................ 52
10.1 10.2 10.3
Surface drilling ............................................................................................................................ 52 Underground drilling ................................................................................................................... 57 Factors that could materially affect the accuracy of the results .................................................. 59
SAMPLE PREPARATION, ANALYSES AND SECURITY .................................................. 60
11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 11.7 11.8 11.9
11.10
Sample density and sampling methods ...................................................................................... 60 Core recovery ............................................................................................................................. 60 Sample quality and representativeness ...................................................................................... 61 Sample preparation by Cameco employees ............................................................................... 61 Sample preparation .................................................................................................................... 61 Assaying ..................................................................................................................................... 62 Radiometric surveying ................................................................................................................ 63 Density sampling ........................................................................................................................ 63 Quality assurance / quality control .............................................................................................. 64 Adequacy of sample preparation, assaying, QA/QC and security .............................................. 68
DATA VERIFICATION ..................................................................................................................... 70
MINERAL PROCESSING AND METALLURGICAL TESTING ......................................... 71
13.1 13.2
Cigar Lake processing metallurgical test work ........................................................................... 71 McClean Lake processing metallurgical test work ...................................................................... 71
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MINERAL RESOURCE ESTIMATES ......................................................................................... 73
14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 14.8
Definitions ................................................................................................................................... 73 Key assumptions, parameters and methods .............................................................................. 73 Geological modelling .................................................................................................................. 76 Compositing ............................................................................................................................... 80 Block modelling .......................................................................................................................... 81 Validation .................................................................................................................................... 83 Mineral resource classification ................................................................................................... 84 Factors that could materially affect the mineral resource estimate ............................................. 89
MINERAL RESERVE ESTIMATES ............................................................................................. 90
15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4
Definitions ................................................................................................................................... 90 Key assumptions, parameters and methods .............................................................................. 90 Mineral reserves estimation and classification ........................................................................... 93 Factors that could materially affect the mineral reserves estimate ............................................. 95
MINING METHOD ............................................................................................................................. 96
16.1 16.2 16.3
Design parameters ..................................................................................................................... 96 Mine design ................................................................................................................................ 100 Mine production .......................................................................................................................... 109
RECOVERY METHODS .................................................................................................................. 115
17.1 17.2 17.3 17.4 17.5
Overview .................................................................................................................................... 115 Cigar Lake flowsheet .................................................................................................................. 115 Processing at McClean Lake ...................................................................................................... 117 McClean Lake mill flowsheet ..................................................................................................... 117 Mill recovery ............................................................................................................................... 118
PROJECT INFRASTRUCTURE ................................................................................................... 119 MARKET STUDIES AND CONTRACTS ................................................................................... 121
19.1 19.2 19.3
Markets ....................................................................................................................................... 121 Material contracts for property development .............................................................................. 122 Uranium price assumptions used for economic analysis ............................................................ 124
iii
AND SOCIAL OR COMMUNITY IMPACT ................................................................................ 126
20.1 20.2 20.3 20.4 20.5 20.6 20.7
Regulatory framework ................................................................................................................ 126 Licences and permits ................................................................................................................. 126 Environmental assessment ........................................................................................................ 126 Environmental aspects ............................................................................................................... 128 Decommissioning and reclamation ............................................................................................. 130 Known environmental liabilities .................................................................................................. 130 Social and community factors ..................................................................................................... 131
