In July of 2018, The American Government announced an investigation into whether imports of uranium threaten to impair national security. The problem was that the United States was consuming far more uranium than it produces. The result was the creation of a nuclear fuel working group to look at the front end of the fuel cycle. Their report went to the White House where it sits to this day. Tim Gitzel, President and CEO of Cameco says, the effect of all this was to paralyze the market. People were wondering if the U-S utilities were going to have to buy U-S production at a higher price? Would that block out foreign companies? Gitzel says it really just froze the market and it still hasn’t thawed. He thinks utilities are waiting to see what comes out of that report.
Starting in April 2016, Cameco shut down its Rabbit Lake operation along with their Wyoming and Nebraska facilities, and they pulled back on McArthur River, and then in November 2017, they had to shut down the McArthur operation altogether.
Gitzel says, whether its Climate Change, reduced CO2 emissions, global warming, or Greta Thunberg, people are starting to take another look at uranium and nuclear energy; He says his industry is getting invited to parties they haven’t been to in probably nine years. That’s good news for the McArthur River facility. But it depends on long-tern contracting that Cameo has been doing over the past couple of years.
Gitzel says the company wants to rebuild its portfolio with contracts acceptable to the company and its shareholders, so that when they restart McArthur River, there will be a home for those pounds of uranium and they are not just dropped into the spot market.
Gitzel says the day they make the call they will probably need about 800 people at McArthur River. He says the company will be happy to be out from under the weight of the care and maintenance cost which works out to about seven to nine million dollars a month. Once hired, the people would have to be trained and Gitzel thinks it would take up to a year before the mine is back up and running.
