Cameco is putting a focus on safety in 2025 following a less-than-optimal 2024. Cameco’s Vice President of Mining and Operational Excellence Andy Thorne says since 2021, the company has seen its injury frequency increase. “Just to put that into context, in 2024, we injured 27 Cameco employees to a point where they had to either receive medical treatment or restrict their job duties. While we were doing that, our contractors also ended up with 32 recordable injuries in that year.” Thorne made the comments during the Saskatchewan Mining Supply Chain Forum in Saskatoon last week.

He attributes the upswing to two things. One; in 2021, 50 per cent of the employees at the Key Lake and McArthur River mines were new to the organization, and two: a lack of supervisor oversight out in the field due to heavy administrative burden. “Our frontline supervisors, because of the amount of work they have to do at the computer and administration, the best we’re seeing is 30 per cent of the time they’re out in the field interacting with their crews.” Thorne says, ideally, that would be 50 per cent or higher. Recently, Cameco has been ramping up its safety protocols. “We’re doing some very strategically focused safety blitzes where we encourage all of the managers, supervisors, to get out in the field and interact with their team.” He hopes to see lower workplace injury numbers in 2025 and beyond.