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Uranium and Nuclear Power Industry

NEWS RELEASE: Steelworkers Question Uranium Changes in Canada-EU Deal

TORONTO, Oct. 22, 2013 /CNW/ – The Conservative government must come clean on reports that the European Union trade deal will remove foreign-ownership limits from Canada’s uranium industry, says the United Steelworkers (USW), Canada’s largest union of uranium miners.

“We ask the federal government to clarify how this trade deal will affect foreign ownership of Canadian uranium mines,” said Ken Neumann, USW’s National Director for Canada.

“The lack of transparency about this important issue begs the question of what other controversial policy changes are hidden in this agreement. Canadians need to see the full text before our governments sign onto it,” Neumann said.

Last Thursday the federal government released a 44-page summary of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) that features the word “transparent” 15 times, but does not mention the word “uranium.”

However, the Saskatchewan government issued a press release Friday that stated: “The new agreement will also ease Canadian restrictions on EU investment, including in the uranium mining sector.”

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Nuclear suppliers still hope for new Ontario reactors – by John Spears (Toronto Star – October 22, 2013)

The Toronto Star has the largest circulation in Canada. The paper has an enormous impact on federal and Ontario politics as well as shaping public opinion.

Companies that supply Canada’s nuclear industry still hope Ontario will build new reactors

Canada’s nuclear industry isn’t taking the province’s decision to scrap plans for two new reactors as final, says the spokesman for nuclear suppliers. “I think the province will, in a year or two years time, once again open the file and look at new construction,” said Ron Oberth of the Organization of Canadian Nuclear Industries.

Oberth expressed the hope in an interview after speaking to the Toronto Star’s editorial board. Energy minister Bob Chiarelli said earlier this month that Ontario won’t proceed with two new reactors at Ontario Power Generation’s Darlington nuclear station.

“It is not wise to spend billions and billions of dollars in new nuclear when that power is not needed,” Chiarelli said.
Over-all demand on Ontario’s power grid dropped 10 per cent from 2005 to 2012. (The figures don’t capture power supplied from some renewable energy projects).

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‘New day’ for Canada’s uranium market as free trade deal pushes industry past Cold War era – by Peter Koven (National Post – October 22, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

More than 20 years after the Cold War ended, Saskatchewan’s uranium sector is finally moving past it.

Following years of lobbying from Premier Brad Wall, the federal government has agreed to strike down foreign ownership restrictions on uranium mining in its proposed free trade deal with Europe. It opens the door for eager foreign companies like Areva SA and Rio Tinto Ltd. to make much larger investments in Saskatchewan’s uranium-rich Athabasca Basin.

“From the moment we were elected [in 2007], we’ve been working with the federal government on this,” Mr. Wall said in an interview. “In terms of uranium mining, it’s certainly a new day.”

The investment restrictions have been in place since 1970, when Ottawa introduced the non-residential ownership policy (or NROP). The law prevents foreign companies from owning more than 49% of a uranium mine in Canada, unless they cannot find a Canadian partner. It is a direct result of Cold War-era concerns about nuclear proliferation, and has looked increasingly dated in the years since then. Saskatchewan is the only province with producing uranium mines, so it is the only one affected by the law.

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Scrapped reactors ‘a psychological blow’ for Candu – by Richard Blackwell (Globe and Mail – October 11, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

Ontario’s decision not to build new nuclear power plants will keep Canada’s home-grown atomic power company, SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Candu Energy Inc., dependent on maintenance and refurbishment of its existing reactors around the world.

Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli confirmed Thursday a report in The Globe and Mail that the province scrapped a plan to spend as much as $10-billion new nuclear reactors as part of its long-term energy strategy. Declining demand for electricity in the province, the potentially huge nuclear build-out costs and decreasing prices for natural gas and other power sources undercut the economic justification for nuclear plants. Ontario will, however, continue an ongoing refurbishment of Darlington Nuclear Generating Station’s four reactors.

The Energy Ministry’s decision “is a psychological blow, although not a huge surprise,” said Mark Winfield, an environmental studies professor at York University in Toronto, who follows the nuclear industry. “The writing has been on the wall for several years,” he said, since the provincial government balked at an earlier plan for new reactors back in 2009.

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Cameco, Sierra Club face off over uranium licences – by Canadian Press/CBC News Saskatchewan (October 04, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/sask/

An environmental group is raising pollution concerns about Cameco’s uranium mining in northern Saskatchewan to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission. But Cameco says the Sierra Club’s allegations that it massively exceeded regulatory limits are false.

The commission heard from both sides during public hearings that ran Tuesday to Thursday on Cameco’s application to renew its mine and mill licences for its Key Lake, McArthur River and Rabbit Lake facilities.

“The most disturbing thing we discovered in the process of preparing the submission were huge, very huge numbers, in terms of pollution that’s coming from the plant and getting into the environment,” John Bennett, executive director of Sierra Club Canada, said Monday.

“Every kind of pollutant that comes out of them, their numbers are way over the limits and no one’s been enforcing it.” The Sierra Club says that as of 2010, water releases from the Deilmann tailings facility in cadmium exceed the Saskatchewan standard by 5,782 per cent. It says the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment allows Cameco to release water from tailings ponds directly into the environment at Horsefly Lake.

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Cameco seeks longer mine licences – by Jeremy Warren and Scott Larson (Saskatoon StarPhoenix – October 2, 2013)

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/index.html

The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission added a third day to its agenda before it even started public hearings on Cameco’s licence renewals applications for three uranium mines in northern Saskatchewan.

The increased interest in the hearings, which started Tuesday night in La Ronge, meant the commission needed an extra day to accommodate the wide range of arguments it will hear about Cameco’s mining and milling operations at the Key Lake, McArthur River and Rabbit Lake facilities.

The company’s biggest request is for a longer licence period – an increase to 10 years from the current five years – for all three sites. It deserves the increase due to its excellent safety and environmental record, Cameco communications director Gord Struthers said.

“Given the excellent performance of our operations, this is completely appropriate,” he said. “(The commission) is on a trend of granting longer licences.” Struthers said the company would not face less regulatory oversight with an 10-year licence period, but he declined to say how the company might benefit from a longer licence period.

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CRA says Saskatchewan uranium giant Cameco has avoided paying hundreds of millions in Canadian taxes by offshoring profits in Switzerland – by John Greenwood (National Post – September 26, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The Canada Revenue Agency says Saskatchewan-based Cameco Corp. hasn’t been paying its taxes and it wants the money. Now Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall has joined the fray, calling for Cameco, the world’s largest publicly traded uranium producer, to pay up.

Speaking to reporters this week, Mr. Wall said part of the tax revenue that Ottawa collects ends up going back to the provinces, so when the CRA says it’s not getting what it believes it should, “that’s a concern to [Saskatchewan] as well, and it should be. It doesn’t matter who the company is, or the individual. We should pay taxes that are due.”

At issue is Cameco’s alleged practice of shifting profits to a Switzerland subsidiary where taxes are lower. And while the Cameco case has been going on for several years and though the CRA won the most recent round, the ruling is being appealed and observers say it is unclear who will come out on top.

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COLUMN-Unloved uranium may shine as longer-term bet – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.K. – September 26, 2013)

http://uk.reuters.com/

Clyde Russell is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own.

LAUNCESTON, Australia, Sept 26 (Reuters) – It would be hard to find a natural resource less liked than uranium, but the radioactive fuel may just be the place for contrarian investors.

It’s not hard to see why uranium isn’t popular with swathes of the world’s public, given the high-profile disaster at the Fukushima nuclear power plant after a major earthquake and tsunami struck Japan in March 2011.

Uranium prices, both spot and New York futures , plunged after the Fukushima meltdown and have stayed depressed as countries such as Germany backed away from nuclear power amid rising public mistrust. Spot uranium is around $35 a pound, less than half of what it was before Fukushima and about a quarter of the all-time high reached in the middle of 2007.

Given that all of Japan’s 50 reactors are offline and Fukushima is once again in the news over the problem of the build-up and leaking of contaminated water, it hardly seems the right time to turn bullish on uranium.

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[Saskatchewan Premier] Wall silent on Cameco tax move – by Murray Mandryk (Regina Leader-Post – September 24, 2013)

http://www.leaderpost.com/index.html

It’s been six years since Brad Wall was elected Saskatchewan premier, but it was three years ago at this time when he cemented himself as a populist politician.

A proposed takeover of Potash-Corp by multinational South African-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton left Wall on the horns of dilemma: Should he subscribe to his philosophically conservative roots and simply allow the market/shareholders to sort this matter? Or should he act in the best interests of a province whose priority would be PotashCorp’s market share and, thus, royalties?

Compounding matters were BHP Billiton’s eagerness to excuse itself from the marketing cartel Canpotex, which controls offshore potash sales, versus the fact that BHP Billiton was in the early stages of developing what may be the province’s biggest potash mine and one of the first new mines to be built in 40 years.

By setting aside his philosophy and choosing to put the interests of Saskatchewan taxpayers first, Wall established himself as a populist leader voters could look to, to do the right thing … even if that meant sometimes going against his natural inclinations.

However, Wall’s future political and governance success will largely depend on his ability to demonstrate that this wasn’t just a one-off and – when the situation requires – that he is capable of taking on the corporate giants on behalf of the Saskatchewan citizenry.

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Canadian uranium sector prepares for rising tide – by Simon Rees (MiningWeekly.com – September 20, 2013)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Uranium is back on the radar for many in the Canadian investment community. At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive: effective September 2, the uranium oxide spot price stood at $34/lb, while short-term market sentiment remains muted.

But uranium marches to a different, longer-term beat. Bullish analysts and commentators highlight wider macro factors that will eventually act as key supports for output, spot prices and fixed-term supply contracts. Canada is poised to reap great rewards as the world’s second-largest producer of uranium, they argue.

However, others urge caution; long-term macro expectations have the nasty habit of falling flat, while the junior spectrum – so critical for broadening the pipeline of available projects – continues to suffer from strong economic headwinds. Then there is the question of the possible effect that Quebec’s moratorium on uranium exploration and exploitation may have.

Canada’s two main uranium producers are Cameco and Areva, and both have significant footprints in the prolific Athabasca basin region of northern Saskatchewan.

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Ottawa accuses Cameco of multi-million dollar tax dodge – by Geoff Leo (CBC News Saskatchewan – September 19, 2013)

http://www.cbc.ca/saskatchewan/

Saskatchewan may have missed out on $300M in corporate tax

One of the largest companies in Saskatchewan is in the midst of a multi-million dollar tax court battle with Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). Cameco has publicly estimated that it could end up owing $800-850 million in Canadian corporate taxes for the years 2008 to 2012, if it loses the case.

CRA contends that the uranium giant set up a subsidiary in Zug, Switzerland for the purpose of avoiding taxes in Canada. However Cameco’s CFO, Grant Isaac, disputes that claim.

He says there’s a compelling business case for having a marketing arm in Europe, close to customers there. “We believe that it was established in accordance with sound business principles and in accordance with relevant laws and regulations,” Isaac told investors at the corporation’s first quarter update in May 2013.

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How Ontario plans to deal with tonnes of nuclear waste: Bury the problem – by Shawn McCarthy (Globe and Mail – September 13, 2013)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

INVERHURON, ONT. — On a clear day, Marti McFadzean can see the Bruce nuclear plant from her home in this cottage town on the sandy shores of Lake Huron, where she had summered since childhood and has now retired.

Ms. McFadzean was never too concerned about the proximity of a nuclear plant to her family’s tranquil summer retreat, where five generations have gathered since 1928. But this summer, the former school administrator interrupted her retirement to become a full-time NIMBY activist.

She and many of her neighbours along Lake Huron’s eastern shore are campaigning against a $1-billion plan by Ontario Power Generation (OPG) to bury low- and intermediate-level nuclear waste in a deep geologic repository (DGR) at the Bruce site, a facility that would be built just two kilometres from her home and only a kilometre from the lake itself.

For nuclear power producers, the Bruce DGR represents part of a long-term answer to a thorny problem that has dogged the industry since its postwar inception: what to do with the radioactive waste that will remain dangerous long after the reactors are gone, in some cases for hundreds of thousands of years.

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Start-up problems delay production from Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine into 2014 – by By Lauren Krugel (Canadian Press/Montreal Gazette – September 9, 2013)

http://www.montrealgazette.com/index.html

SASKATOON – Cameco Corp. says its long-delayed Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan won’t begin producing until early 2014 because of some glitches it encountered during the start-up process.

The company had expected to produce 300,000 pounds of milled uranium this year, but on Monday said it will be unable to meet that target. The Cigar Lake mine — delayed several times in recent years due to flooding and other technical issues — is 97 per cent complete and had been close to finally starting up.

“When a mine is being commissioned, issues are going to come up and Cigar Lake is no exception,” CEO Tim Gitzel told a conference call.

“While we’re not happy with these delays, we have to keep in mind that Cigar Lake is a long-term project that we expect to last for many, many years. It is an important source of what will be low cost production for Cameco and a key component of our strategy to increase annual production to 36 million pounds by 2018.”

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Uranium juniors merger between Fission, Alpha Minerals creates bigger target – by Peter Koven (September 4, 2013)

The National Post is Canada’s second largest national paper.

The co-owners of a landmark Saskatchewan uranium discovery are coming together in a deal that they hope will be a precursor to a much bigger sale in the future.

Ever since junior miners Fission Uranium Corp. and Alpha Minerals Inc. started to release spectacular drilling results from their Patterson Lake South (PLS) project last year, investors viewed a merger of the two companies as a logical move. It would give them greater scale, make them more appealing to large investors and create a potential takeover target for a senior producer.

A friendly deal finally arrived on Tuesday, as Fission said it will buy Alpha for $185-million in stock. The move comes after a few large Alpha shareholders approached Fission about putting the two companies together. Each company owns 50% of the PLS project.

“It all started with their shareholders coming to us, and not us coming to them,” Fission chairman and chief executive Dev Randhawa said in an interview. PLS is a very early-stage discovery, but the grades are high and the potential is enormous. It is the most exciting find in Saskatchewan’s Athabasca Basin since Hathor Exploration Ltd. discovered the Roughrider deposit in 2008. Hathor was later sold for $654-million.

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Tuberculosis at Sask. mine sparks cross-Canada check of workers – by Kelly Malone (CJME.com – August 26, 2013)

 http://cjme.com/

Seven provinces working with TB Control Sask.

A case of tuberculosis (TB) at a Saskatchewan mine has led to contact tracing across Canada. The active tuberculosis was discovered at the Cigar Lake Cameco mine at the end of July and caused the mining company and TB Control Saskatchewan to work together to track individuals possibly exposed to the disease. The latest count showed 130 individuals spread across eight provinces from British Colombia to New Brunswick.

“It’s not uncommon. It depends on the situation and depends on what the communicable disease is,” said Deputy medical health officer in the Saskatoon Health Region Dr. Julie Kryzanowski.

“When that happens then there is notification sent out through interprovincial reporting structures to notify them of the potential exposure so they can be alert and do what needs to be done for people who live in their province or their health regions.”

Under the Public Health Act and disease control regulations there are a number of communicable diseases that are reportable by law, including TB. Public health does a follow up to figure out what individuals may have been exposed. Those people are offered a skin test to see if they have the TB bacteria and are then offered antibiotic treatment.

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