Cameco Corporation
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Cameco Corporation 2019 Annual information form March 27, 2020 Contents Important information about this document ............................................................................................................................ 1 About Cameco ............................................................................................................................................................................ 4 Operations and projects .......................................................................................................................................................... 20 Uranium – Tier-one operations ............................................................................................................................................... 21 Uranium – Tier-two operations ............................................................................................................................................... 66 Uranium – advanced projects ................................................................................................................................................. 68 Uranium – exploration and corporate development ................................................................................................................ 69 Fuel services .......................................................................................................................................................................... 70 Mineral reserves and resources ............................................................................................................................................. 72 Our approach to ESG matters ................................................................................................................................................. 78 The regulatory environment .................................................................................................................................................... 84 Risks that can affect our business ......................................................................................................................................... 93 Legal proceedings .................................................................................................................................................................. 113 Investor information ............................................................................................................................................................... 113 Governance ............................................................................................................................................................................ 119 Appendix A ............................................................................................................................................................................. 123 Important information about this document This annual information form (AIF) for the year ended December 31, 2019 provides important information about Cameco Corporation. It describes our history, our markets, our operations and projects, our mineral reserves and resources, our approach to environmental, social and governance matters (ESG), our regulatory environment, the risks we face in our business and the market for our shares, among other things. It also incorporates by reference: our management’s discussion and analysis for the year ended December 31, 2019 (2019 MD&A), which is available on SEDAR (sedar.com) and on EDGAR Throughout this document, the terms we, (sec.gov) as an exhibit to our Form 40-F; and us, our, the company and Cameco mean our audited consolidated financial statements for the year ended December 31, Cameco Corporation and its subsidiaries. 2019 (2019 financial statements), which are also available on SEDAR and on EDGAR as an exhibit to our Form 40-F. We have prepared this document to meet the requirements of Canadian securities laws, which are different from what United States (US) securities laws require. The information contained in this AIF is presented as at December 31, 2019, the last day of our most recently completed financial year, and is based on what we knew as of March 10, 2020, except as otherwise stated. Certain information contained in this AIF has been further updated, including the discussion on page 50, Temporary suspension of production at Cigar Lake operation due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and on page 109, Risks that can affect our business – Legal and other risks – Public health issues and disease outbreaks. Reporting currency and financial information Unless we have specified otherwise, all dollar amounts are in Canadian dollars. Any references to $(US) mean US dollars. The financial information in this AIF has been presented in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Caution about forward-looking information Our AIF and the documents incorporated by reference include statements and information about our expectations for the future. When we discuss our strategy, plans and future financial and operating performance, or other things that have not yet taken place, we are making statements considered to be forward-looking information or forward-looking statements under Canadian and US securities laws. We refer to them in this AIF as forward-looking information. In particular, the discussions under the headings Market overview and developments and Marketing framework – balanced contract portfolio in this AIF contain forward-looking information. Key things to understand about the forward-looking information in this AIF: It typically includes words and phrases about the future, such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, plan, will, intend, goal, target, forecast, project, strategy and outlook (see examples on page 2). It represents our current views, and can change significantly. It is based on a number of material assumptions, including those we have listed below, which may prove to be incorrect. Actual results and events may be significantly different from what we currently expect, due to the risks associated with our business. We list a number of these material risks below. We recommend you also review other parts of this document, including Risks that can affect our business starting on page 93, and our 2019 MD&A, which includes a discussion of other material risks that could cause actual results to differ significantly from our current expectations. Forward-looking information is designed to help you understand management’s current views of our near and longer term prospects, and it may not be appropriate for other purposes. We will not necessarily update this information unless we are required to by securities laws. 2019 ANNUAL INFORMATION FORM Page 1 Examples of forward-looking information in this AIF our expectation that the current market environment will the discussion of our expectations relating to our Canada give way to strong long-term fundamentals driven by Revenue Agency (CRA) transfer pricing dispute, including increasing populations and the impact of growing that the Tax Court of Canada’s (Tax Court) ruling will be electricity demand on the world’s climate upheld on appeal and our estimate of the amount and our belief that nuclear energy will play a central role in timing of expected cash taxes, transfer pricing penalties providing safe, reliable, affordable carbon-free baseload and disbursements award electricity and achieving a low-carbon future our expectations for future tax payments and rates, our expectations about 2020 and future global uranium including effective tax rates supply, consumption, demand, prices, and contracting future plans and expectations for our uranium properties, volumes advanced projects, and fuel services operating sites, our expectation that that the uranium industry will continue including production levels and the suspension of to be cyclical and that utilities will re-enter the long-term production at certain properties market to ensure they have the reliable supply of uranium our expectations for our production restart plans, including they need to run their reactors that all critical project work can be completed within a one our expectation that current market uncertainty will give year time frame and that an experienced workforce will be way to increasing concerns about the security of future available supply and increases in demand for uranium from estimates of operating and capital costs and mine life for producers and financial players our tier one uranium operations our belief that uranium available in the spot market will not estimated decommissioning and reclamation costs for be adequate to satisfy the growing backlog of long-term uranium properties and fuel services operating sites demand the discussion of Joint Venture Inkai LLP’s (JV Inkai) our expectation that there will be increased competition to expansion plans for a 10.4 million pound per year secure uranium under long-term contracts on terms that operation will ensure the availability of reliable primary supply to our mineral reserve and resource estimates meet growing demand our expectations that the price of uranium, production our expectation about 2020 and future consumption of costs and recovery rates will allow us to operate or conversion services develop a particular site or sites our expectation that our approach to long-term contracting estimates of metallurgical recovery and other production will