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 processing facility located on the eastern edge of the Athabasca Basin in northern Saskatchewan approximately 26 kilometres west of the Rabbit Lake mine and approximately 750 kilometres north of Saskatoon. Development of the McClean Lake project began in March 1995. Construction and commissioning were completed in 1997. The JEB deposit was mined out and the ore stockpiled. The JEB pit was then converted in 1999 into the JEB Tailings Management Facility (see below). The McClean Lake Mill began production of uranium concentrates in 1999, processing ore from the JEB deposit. The first ore was fed to the processing facilities on June 22, 1999 and commercial production was achieved on November 1, 1999.

The McClean Lake surface facilities consist of a modern mill licensed to produce 8.0 million pounds of uranium per year. The McClean Lake 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.

The facilities have been expanded to a capacity of 12.0 million pounds per year to permit the processing of ore from Cigar Lake. Construction of this expansion was completed in 2008.  As a result of the flood that occurred at Cigar Lake in October 2006 and subsequent problems with the water inflows, the Cigar Lake joint venture announced that processing of its ore at the McClean Lake mill will be delayed. The exact date has not been determined due to the uncertain nature of the dewatering efforts. In the meantime, the expanded capacity will be available for use by the McClean Lake joint venture.

Interior, McClean Lake Mill, Saskatchewan

In 2008, the McClean Lake mill processed ore principally from the higher grade Sue E deposit and produced approximately 3.2 million pounds of U3O8, of which Denison’s share was 731,250 pounds.

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

 

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Ore Milled (thousand tonnes)

161

170

131

177

152

Average Grade (% U3O8)

0.96

0.53

0.68

1.45

1.86

Production (thousand pounds U3O8)

3,248

1,905

1,795

5,490

6,005

Production in 2009 is expected to be approximately 3.4 million pounds (Denison’s share: 761,000 pounds), with the mill feed consisting principally of Sue E ore combined with a small amount of the stockpiled Sue A and Sue B ores.

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

The disposal of mill tailings in an environmentally acceptable manner has led to advances in the design and construction of new tailings management facilities. In the state-of-the-art TMF, tailings are deposited subaqueously in a paste form from a barge. This procedure minimizes tailings segregation, eliminates concerns of freezing and dust generation, and controls radiation and radon emissions from the pond. This facility has been designed to receive tailings from processing high-grade Midwest and Cigar Lake ores in addition to tailings from the McClean Lake deposits.





Last updated April, 2009.