Uranium Production Paused
Cameco Suspends Cigar Lake Uranium Mining Following Orano Mill Acid Plant Outage
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Key Points
1
Ownership of the Cigar Lake project is split between Cameco and Orano Canada, with Cameco owning about 57.4% and Orano Canada about 42.6%.
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The root cause is a shutdown of Orano's sulfuric acid plant at the McClean Lake mill, which is being repaired; Orano is evaluating alternative acid sources while replacement parts are delivered.
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Limited ore storage at Cigar Lake means mining is paused until adequate sulfuric acid supplies are available for milling at McClean Lake.
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Cameco cautions that if the acid plant repairs take longer than planned, the company could see an impact on its 2026 production outlook for Cigar Lake; a two-week recovery window is stated, but delays carry risk.
Cameco has temporarily suspended mining at Cigar Lake, the world's highest-grade uranium mine, after a sulfuric acid plant failure knocked out the McClean Lake mill that processes the mine's ore, according to Reuters. With limited on-site storage for ore slurry, mining had to stop almost immediately once the mill went down.
Orano Canada, which operates the mill and co-owns the mine, is repairing the acid plant and hunting for alternative acid supplies while replacement parts are delivered, Reuters reported. The company expects McClean Lake to be back online within about two weeks — but Cameco warns that a longer delay could dent its 2026 production targets.
Why an Acid Plant Can Shut Down a Uranium Mine
The McClean Lake mill uses sulfuric acid as the key chemical to dissolve, or "leach," uranium out of the ore. Without a steady acid supply, the mill's processing circuit simply cannot run. Cigar Lake's ore arrives at the mill as a finely ground slurry — pumped 70 kilometers northeast to McClean Lake — and the mine has almost no room to store excess slurry on site, according to MarketScreener.
That tight storage limit is the critical link. As soon as the mill stopped accepting new material, Cameco had no choice but to pause mining entirely. It is a structural vulnerability built into the "toll milling" model, where one mine depends entirely on a separate facility to process its ore.
Orano's Acid Plant Failure Follows Earlier Safety Incidents
The acid plant shutdown in late June was not the first sign of trouble at McClean Lake in 2026. On June 13, a "dangerous occurrence" was logged at the mill's water treatment plant, involving sulfur dioxide gas off-gassing from a reagent sump. Staff briefly halted work in the area for air quality checks, according to regulatory records cited in the live research briefing.
The back-to-back incidents raise questions about the state of aging infrastructure at the facility. Orano has not publicly linked the June 13 event to the acid plant failure, but the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission oversees reporting of all such incidents and may require a closer look at maintenance practices before authorizing a full restart.
2026 Production Guidance Intact — For Now
Cameco's full-year target for Cigar Lake sits at 17.5 to 18.0 million pounds of uranium on a 100% basis. The mine produced 4.9 million pounds in Q1 2026 alone, according to GuruFocus. Cameco says the two-week repair window should keep annual output on track — but the company was direct about the risk, warning that repairs taking longer than planned "could impact the 2026 production outlook."
Analysts estimate a one-month delay could strip roughly 1.5 million pounds from this year's total. Cameco holds about 57.4% of the Cigar Lake joint venture, with Orano Canada holding the remaining 42.6% — a split finalized after Cameco and Orano jointly bought out TEPCO's 5% stake for CAD $115.75 million in June, according to the live research briefing.
Uranium Market Feels the Pressure of a Two-Week Pause
Cigar Lake is not just any mine. It is the single largest source of high-grade uranium in the world, and any supply disruption there tends to move markets. Cameco's stock, trading around $101.86 as of July 1, is already about 25% below its 52-week high of $135.24, leaving little room for further operational setbacks, according to GuruFocus.
Some analysts frame the outage as proof that physical uranium supply is more fragile than markets price in. Sourcing alternative sulfuric acid for a remote northern Saskatchewan site is logistically hard — it requires specialized rail and truck transport over long distances. The two-week timeline depends entirely on parts arriving on schedule, and supply chain delays could push that window out further.
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