Waste
Most mine waste is generated at our uranium mining operations in northern Saskatchewan, where it is safely stored in tailings management facilities.
We reuse waste rock where possible, but the amount of waste rock we can reuse depends on the type of rock that is generated and the number of projects in progress.
We use uneconomical mineralized waste rock as blend material for ore processing and for structural support in backfilling our underground mines. Clean waste rock is used in concrete mixtures, to build new facilities and to develop or maintain roads. This reduces the size of our waste rock piles and the amount of other natural aggregate resources we consume.
Tailing management facilities
Cameco pioneered in-pit tailings management facilities. These engineered facilities in mined-out open pits, designed to protect the environment for thousands of years, are now recognized as a best practice in tailings management around the world.
We treat our mill tailings to stabilize contaminants before placing them in the tailings facilities, and divert both surface and groundwater around them to reduce any impact. Runoff and seepage water from the tailings facilities and rock piles is collected and treated before it is released to the environment.
Cameco is also a leader in low-cost in situ recovery (ISR) mining technology for uranium. This involves circulating solutions through ore-bearing formations to dissolve uranium and pump it to the surface for recovery – an approach that results in minimal surface disturbance and produces no waste rock or mill tailings. We use in situ recovery methods at our operations in the US and Kazakhstan to extract uranium contained in sandstone aquifers.
Landfill waste
The amount of landfill waste we generate varies each year based on our activities. When more people are on site, more waste is usually generated, even when each person is generating slightly less waste than at other sites with fewer people.
The type of waste we generate also varies depending on our activities, which affects our waste diversion rates from year to year (for example, if a large proportion of the waste generated in one year was metal and could be recycled, the diversion rate might be higher that year compared to a year when there was less recyclable metal).
Similar to our direct and indirect energy use and greenhouse gas trends, we expect our waste volumes to increase as we expand our operations, increase production, deal with historic waste and progressively decommission our sites.
Our operations are looking for ways to reduce and divert waste, including industrial-scale composting, increased recycling and decontamination and incineration/gasification technologies.