The McClean Lake mine is a

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

mine and milling operation located west of Wollaston Lake, about 700 kilometres north of

Saskatoon Saskatoon () is the largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. It straddles a bend in the South Saskatchewan River in the central region of the province. It is located along the Trans-Canada Hig ...

, in the

Athabasca Basin The Athabasca Basin is a region in the Canadian Shield of northern Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada. It is best known as the world's leading source of high-grade uranium and currently supplies about 20% of the world's uranium. The basin i ...

region of

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

. The McClean ore body was discovered in 1979, followed by the discovery of the JEB ore body in 1982. From 1985 to 1990, a cluster of deposits named Sue A, Sue B and Sue C were discovered. Production from the JEB and Sue C open pits commenced in 1999. Upon depletion, the JEB pit was converted to a Tailings Management Facility (TMF). The Sue C pit will be converted to a TMF for the disposal of waste from the McLean Lake and Cigar Lake operations. Production from the Sue A mine and development of the Sue E mine, commenced in mid-2005. After the tailings from the milling operations and waste rock from the mining operations are chemically treated to precipitate

arsenic Arsenic is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol As and atomic number 33. It is a metalloid and one of the pnictogens, and therefore shares many properties with its group 15 neighbors phosphorus and antimony. Arsenic is not ...

and

nickel Nickel is a chemical element; it has symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive, but large pieces are slo ...

they are pumped into the TMF. There they form a consolidated mass of much lower permeability than the surrounding

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

. As a result, the

groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available fresh water in the world is groundwater. A unit ...

flow is diverted around the tailings. By these means the water quality in adjacent Fox and Pat Lakes is expected to be maintained within Saskatchewan Surface Water Quality Objectives over the long term (10,000 years). This expectation has to be confirmed by monitoring subject to oversight by the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC).

External links

* *

References

Uranium mines in Canada Mines in Saskatchewan Surface mines in Canada Denison Mines {{saskatchewan-geo-stub