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Saskatchewan Mining

Saskatchewan sets up nuclear secretariat to plan for reactors – by Michael Bramadat-Willcock (National Observer – June 24, 2020)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

La Ronge, Saskatchewan – The provincial government unveiled its plans Wednesday to establish an office to co-ordinate nuclear policy and program work within the Climate Change and Adaptation Division of the Ministry of Environment.

The new nuclear secretariat is mandated to develop and execute a strategic plan for the deployment of “clean-energy small modular reactors” in the province. No timeframe commitments were made in the announcement, which also did not provide sites in Saskatchewan where new reactors will be installed.

“The deployment of small modular reactors in Saskatchewan will require collaboration with several partners to fully encompass the benefits Saskatchewan could see in way of jobs, enhanced value chains for Saskatchewan’s uranium, and our made-in-Saskatchewan climate policy,” Environment Minister Dustin Duncan said.

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South Sask. governments eye tenuous coal-free economic future – by Evan Radford (Regina Leader-Post – June 9, 2020)

https://leaderpost.com/

CORONACH — As several local governments in south Saskatchewan eye an economic future without coal, a veteran of the industry is looking back on its history, uncertain what type of future development in the area is sustainable.

“I have no problem with wind- and sun-power. But if the wind don’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, I don’t know what you’re going to do — put a crank on it?” scoffs 93-year-old Harold Siggelkow.

The longtime Coronach resident owned the local mine on the southeast side of town for two years, 1946 and 1947. He kept working in the industry several years thereafter, in Crowsnest Pass, Alta. and at the Coronach-area’s Poplar River power plant, which uses coal from nearby surface strip-mining, in the 1970s.

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Saskatchewan launches new lithium production project – by Jonathan Guignard (Global News – June 3, 2020)

https://globalnews.ca/

Saskatchewan will soon be home to a new lithium production project. The Prairie-LiEP Critical Mineral (PLCM) joint venture is being undertaken by Prairie Lithium Corp. and LiEP Energy Ltd.

Their two-stage pilot project will produce lithium hydroxide from some of the province’s oilfield brines. “This is another exciting development that promotes economic diversification in Saskatchewan,” Energy and Resources Minister Bronwyn Eyre said.

“Lithium has great potential, due to increasing worldwide demand, which is why supporting extraction technologies and a viable lithium sector are included in Saskatchewan’s growth plan.”

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COPPER-SILVER: Rio Tinto preps plans for 2020 at Janice Lake – by Staff (Canadian Mining Journal – May 20, 2020)

http://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

SASKATCHEWAN – Following up on a positive 2019 exploration program, Rio Tinto is planning 2,000 metres of drilling, plus mapping, prospecting and geophysical surveys this year at the Janice Lake copper-silver project in northern Saskatchewan.

The major is earning up to an 80% interest in the project from Forum Energy Metals, which has optioned the property from Transition Metals.

Last year’s program at the sedimentary copper-silver project, located 55 km southeast of Key Lake, included 21 drill holes totalling 5,209 metres.

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NexGen Energy lines up US$30M financing with Queen’s Road Capital – by Carl A. Williams (Northern Miner – May 12, 2020)

https://www.northernminer.com/

NexGen Energy (TSX: NXE; NYSE: NXE) has signed a US$30 million financing agreement with Queen’s Road Capital Investment (TSXV: QRC) and plans to use the funds to advance work at its flagship Arrow deposit, part of the company’s Rook 1 project in Saskatchewan.

“Warren Gilman, chairman and chief executive officer of Queen’s Road Capital, is a long-time shareholder and supporter of NexGen and also joined our board in 2017,” Leigh Curyer, NexGen’s CEO, said in an interview.

“Warren came to us and wanted to invest in uranium, but only wanted to invest in world-class projects and world-class management teams. We met both those criteria.”

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Uranium workers in northern Sask. facing 25 per cent pay cut – by Michael Bramadat-Willcock (National Observer – April 22, 2020)

https://www.nationalobserver.com/

Hundreds of workers in northern Saskatchewan will be hit with a 25 per cent pay cut in May, as Cameco Corporation’s Cigar Lake mine and Orano Canada Inc.’s McClean Lake mill extend their production suspension past the four week period that was announced on March 23.

“The global challenges posed by this pandemic are not abating — in fact, they are deepening,” Cameco’s president and CEO Tim Gitzel said in a written statement.

Cameco Corporation is the world’s largest publicly traded producer of uranium and Orano Canada Inc. operates the mill where ore from Cigar Lake mine is processed.

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Cameco suspends Cigar Lake uranium operations to reduce threat of COVID-19 spread – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – March 25, 2020)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Cameco Corp. has suspended operations at its massive Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan to reduce the threat of spreading the novel coronavirus into remote communities in northern parts of the province.

One of the biggest uranium mines in the world, Cigar Lake is located about 650 kilometers north of Saskatoon, and is a fly-in/fly-out operation.

In a statement, Cameco said the decision to idle Cigar Lake for four weeks was motivated by the “restrictions enacted by the federal and provincial governments, the significant degree of concern among leaders in remote isolated communities of northern Saskatchewan, and the increased challenges of maintaining the recommended physical distancing.”

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How COVID-19 is affecting the bottom line in Sask.’s biggest industries – by Chelsea Laskowski (CBC News Saskatchewan – March 17, 2020)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/

Saskatchewan’s biggest industries are forging ahead with limited impact in the face of COVID-19, but are paying keen attention to its long-term effects. Potash and uranium mines are taking precautions with staff, but spokespeople with Nutrien and Cameco, the biggest players in both industries in the province, say there have been no disruptions to production.

Spring seeding hasn’t started in agriculture yet, but there are long-term repercussions that could hit next month. In the short term, oil has been the hardest hit.

Oil

Oil prices plummeted early last week. There were other factors causing the dip that were unrelated to coronavirus, but as the disease has spread there are new major pressures on the industry.

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ALX encouraged by nickel, copper mineralization at Falcon project in Saskatchewan – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – March 17, 2020)

https://www.mining.com/

ALX Resources (TSXV: AL) intersected nickel and copper mineralization in the second hole of the 2020 drilling program at its Falcon nickel project located in the northern Athabasca region of Saskatchewan, Canada.

In a media statement, ALX explained that its second drill hole on the V-1 conductive target proximal to the historical Currie Lake deposit area completed to a depth of 108 metres intersected sulphide mineralization beginning at a depth of 47.03 metres continuing to 67.89 metres.

“The presence of nickel and copper mineralization in hole FN20-002 has been confirmed by the use of a portable X-ray fluorescence device on the drill core, which is currently being logged and sampled,” the media brief reads.

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Feds bullish on nuclear: Minister visits Sask. north – by Glenn Hicks (LaRongeNow.com – March 10, 2020)

https://larongenow.com/

“Show me a credible plan that doesn’t involve nuclear.” That’s the strong endorsement for Saskatchewan’s uranium sector from federal Minister of Natural Resources Seamus O’Regan who has just wrapped a visit to the North.

O’Regan, who has been minister for a few months, said he wanted to acquaint himself with the world’s richest uranium mine at Cigar Lake and also visit the various northern communities who rely on mining jobs, such as Hatchet Lake, Black Lake and Fond du Lac. But he also carried with him an unequivocal message about Ottawa’s stance on nuclear as part of the route toward net-zero emissions by 2050.

“There is no way that we can reach net-zero without nuclear energy, and there is no way we can reach net-zero without the mining industry,” he told paNOW. “When we talk of a carbon-free future we often point to things like electric cars. Well, they’re built of something: they’re built with metals and minerals.”

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Northern mine cleanups continue; province, feds still divided on cost – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – February 24, 2020)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Crews are expected to start assessing Saskatchewan’s first uranium mine, which was staked 100 years ago, this summer.

Saskatchewan’s first uranium discovery was staked a century ago, but it took almost three decades before prospectors gave up attempting to extract iron, copper and gold from the site and turned their attention to its last remaining mineral resource.

Named for the former Royal North-West Mounted Police officer who re-staked the site on the north shore of Lake Athabasca in 1929, the Nicholson mine underwent development in 1949 and sent out its first uranium shipments five years later.

Production halted in 1956 after Consolidated Nicholson Mines Ltd.’s supply contract ended in the face of falling prices. Subsequent efforts to resume mining failed and the remote site was abandoned with little cleanup effort a few years later.

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Toronto mining company eyes rare earths near Uranium City – by Alex MacPherson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – January 20, 2020)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

James Sykes said he needed just a few seconds with a hammer and a pry bar to knock a 60-kilogram hunk of rock from an outcrop just south of Saskatchewan’s border with the Northwest Territories a couple of years ago.

The veteran prospector liked what he found. “We have surface showings. That (rock) was 40 per cent rare earth oxide,” said Sykes, who has spent his career exploring for uranium and, along the way, helped discover several major deposits in northern Saskatchewan.

Today, Sykes is the vice-president of exploration and development at Appia Energy Corp., a Toronto-based junior mining company aiming to capitalize on a growing interest in developing a new supply of rare earth elements in Saskatchewan.

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Opinion: Small modular reactors would be a worthy investment for Sask. – by Sarath Peiris (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – November 27, 2019)

https://thestarphoenix.com/

Premier Scott Moe is taking a page from his predecessor Brad Wall’s book and proposing nuclear power as part of Saskatchewan’s base load energy mix — a welcome departure from his ranting against the federal carbon tax even as his government delays action to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions.

Moe is pondering the adoption of Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), which can be designed to generate as little as three megawatts of electricity or as much as 300 MW — approximately the capacity of the Shand coal-fired power station — whereas a conventional reactor produces 1,000 MW to 1,600 MW.

With one-third of SaskPower’s electricity generated via three coal-fired plants that burn low-heat lignite coal — an engineer at the utility once described the fuel as “only a little better than burning dirt” — and another 40 per cent produced from burning natural gas, Saskatchewan certainly can benefit from an alternative power source that is GHG-free.

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Nutrien forced to shut down largest mine due to CN strike – by Eric Atkins (Globe and Mail – November 25, 2019)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The week-long strike by 3,200 Canadian National Railway Co. train conductors has forced the shutdown of Nutrien Ltd.’s potash mine in Rocanville, Sask.

Nutrien, the world’s largest fertilizer company, said on Monday it will halt output at its largest mine for two weeks beginning Dec. 2., as the impact of the strike at Canada’s largest rail company widens.

“It is extremely disappointing that in a year when the agricultural sector has been severely impacted by poor weather and trade disputes, the CN strike will add further hardship to the Canadian agriculture industry,” said Chuck Magro, Nutrien’s chief executive officer. “Any further disruption will be harmful to our business, the Canadian economy, and Canada’s competitive position and reputation as a reliable supplier of fertilizer and food.”

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Mining for the future: Saskatchewan Research Council R&D fosters innovation and sustainability – by Greg Klein (Resource Clips – November 21, 2019)

http://resourceclips.com/

Predictably for a jurisdiction so rich in potash and uranium, mining plays a prominent role in the Saskatchewan Growth Plan, a 10-year economic program announced last week. Skeptics, however, might question the goal to extract lithium and rare earths locally and even set a near-precedent in non-Chinese commercial REE separation.

But it turns out that some of that work has been underway for years, while other targets have already been in the planning stage. That’s just part of a wide range of mining expertise developed and applied by the Saskatchewan Research Council.

SRC figures strongly in the province’s new agenda, whose mining-related initiatives include a continuation of the PST exception on drilling, streamlining permitting, creating a Geoscience Data Management System, boosting annual uranium and potash sales, upgrading and building road, rail, pipeline and power infrastructure, and developing nuclear energy.

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