Managing the Risks

The nature of our operations means we face many potential risks and hazards that could have a significant impact on our business. Our risk policy and process involves a broad, systematic approach to identifying, assessing, reporting and managing the significant risks we face in our business and operations. The policy establishes clear accountabilities for enterprise risk management. We use a common risk matrix throughout the company and consider any risk that has the potential to significantly affect our ability to achieve our corporate objectives or strategic plan as an enterprise risk. However, there is no assurance we will be successful in preventing the harm any of these risks and hazards could cause. We recommend you read our most recent management proxy circular for more information about our risk oversight.

Below we list the regulatory, environmental and operational risks that generally apply to all of our operations and projects under evaluation. We also talk about how we manage specific risks in each operation or project update. These risks could have a material impact on our business in the near term.

We recommend you also review our annual information form, which includes a discussion of other material risks that could have an impact on our business.

Regulatory risks

A significant part of our economic value depends on our ability to:

  • obtain and renew the licences and other approvals we need to operate, to increase production at our mines and to develop new mines. If we do not receive the regulatory approvals we need, or do not receive them at the right time, then we may have to delay, modify or cancel a project, which could increase our costs and delay or prevent us from generating revenue from the project. Regulatory review, including the review of environmental matters, is a long and complex process.
  • comply with the conditions in these licences and approvals. In a number of instances, our right to continue operating facilities, increase production at our mines and develop new mines depends on our compliance with these conditions.
  • comply with the extensive and complex laws and regulations that govern our activities, including our growth plans. Environmental legislation imposes strict standards and controls on almost every aspect of our operations and the mines we plan to develop, and is not only introducing new requirements, but also becoming more stringent. For example:
    • we must complete the environmental assessment process before we can begin developing a new mine or make any significant change to our operations
    • we may need regulatory approval to make changes to our operational processes, which can take a significant amount of time because it may require an extensive review of supporting technical information. The complexity of this process can be further compounded when regulatory approvals are required from multiple agencies.
    • Environment Canada has brought forward a national recovery plan for woodland caribou that has the potential to impact economic and social development in northern Saskatchewan. Additional research work is being conducted so that a determination can be made on the sustainability of the species within the region. The research could result in measures being taken to further limit habitat disturbance in order to improve the health of the woodland caribou population in northern Saskatchewan, and it could have an impact on our Saskatchewan operations and projects under evaluation.
    • Environment Canada has been reviewing the Metal Mining Effluent Regulations (MMER). This review could result in new limits for existing MMER substances and proposed limits for new substances that could impact our Saskatchewan operations.
    • The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to add new health and environmental protection standards to regulate byproduct materials produced by uranium in situ recovery operations. The proposed rule includes surface and subsurface standards, with a primary focus on groundwater protection, restoration and stability. Particularly concerning is the proposed requirement that groundwater must be monitored for 30 years after restoration.

We use significant management and financial resources to manage our regulatory risks.

Environmental risks

We have the safety, health and environmental risks associated with any mining and chemical processing company. Our uranium and fuel services segments also face unique risks associated with radiation.

Laws to protect the environment are becoming more stringent for members of the nuclear energy industry and have inter-jurisdictional aspects (both federal and provincial/state regimes are applicable). Once we have permanently stopped mining and processing activities at an operating site, we are required to decommission the site to the satisfaction of the regulators. We have developed conceptual decommissioning plans for our operating sites and use them to estimate our decommissioning costs. Regulators review our conceptual decommissioning plans on a regular basis. As the site approaches or goes into decommissioning, regulators review the detailed decommissioning plans. This can result in further regulatory process, as well as additional requirements, costs and financial assurances.

At the end of 2015, our estimate of total decommissioning and reclamation costs was $975 million. This is the undiscounted value of the obligation and is based on our current operations. We had accounting provisions of $917 million at the end of 2015 (the present value of the $975 million). Since we expect to incur most of these expenditures at the end of the useful lives of the operations they relate to, our expected costs for decommissioning and reclamation for the next five years are not material.

We provide financial assurances for decommissioning and reclamation such as letters of credit to regulatory authorities, as required. We had a total of $1 billion in letters of credit supporting our reclamation liabilities at the end of 2015. All of our North American operations have letters of credit in place that provide financial assurance in connection with our preliminary plans for decommissioning of the sites.

Some of the sites we own or operate have been under ongoing investigation and/or remediation and planning as a result of historic soil and groundwater conditions. For example, we are addressing issues related to historic soil and groundwater contamination at Port Hope.

We use significant management and financial resources to manage our environmental risks.

We manage environmental risks through our safety, health, environment and quality (SHEQ) management system. Our chief executive officer is responsible for ensuring that our SHEQ management system is implemented. Our board’s safety, health and environment committee also oversees how we manage our environmental risks.

In 2015, we invested:

  • $77 million in environmental protection, monitoring and assessment programs, about the same as 2014
  • $31 million in health and safety programs, or 29% more than 2014 as a result of ventilation improvements at McArthur River

Spending on environmental programs is expected to increase slightly in 2016, while spending on health and safety programs will decrease toward 2014 levels.

Operational risks

Other operational risks and hazards include:

  • environmental damage
  • industrial and transportation accidents
  • labour shortages, disputes or strikes
  • cost increases for labour, contracted or purchased materials, supplies and services
  • shortages of required materials, supplies and equipment
  • transportation disruptions
  • electrical power interruptions
  • equipment failures
  • non-compliance with laws and licences
  • catastrophic accidents
  • fires
  • blockades or other acts of social or political activism
  • natural phenomena, such as inclement weather conditions, floods and earthquakes
  • unusual, unexpected or adverse mining or geological conditions
  • underground floods
  • ground movement or cave-ins
  • tailings pipeline or dam failures
  • technological failure of mining methods

We have insurance to cover some of these risks and hazards, but not all of them, and not to the full amount of losses or liabilities that could potentially arise.