Water

Ensuring the water we treat and release to the environment meets and beats all regulatory requirements and won’t harm the local ecosystem – Water is essential to our operations and is used in a variety of ways. We need to ensure the water we do use is released to the environment in a way that will protect the health and safety of the public, workers and the environment. As well, in the nuclear industry, we need to comply with the most stringent regulatory standards for mining operations in the world. To deal with these challenges, all water that comes into contact with our mining, milling or fuel conversion processes is effectively managed to ensure potential effects on the surrounding environment are minimized.

Minimizing the amount of water we use – We withdraw a significant amount of water at all our operations for a variety of purposes. While we do not work in water scarce environments, we work to minimize the water we use.

Ensuring the safety of our underground operations in water abundant environments – In northern Saskatchewan, our mining operations are faced with the very unique challenge of an over-abundance of water, as they mine underground in places that would ordinarily be filled with water. Preventing water from interfering with production and the safety of our underground operations is of paramount importance for the safety of our workers and the continuance of our operations.

Planning tools – We have adopted several tools to minimize the impacts related to water discharge and withdrawal. These tools include:

• environmental assessments
• life cycle value assessments
• identification of environmental aspects and assessment of their significance
• the establishment, implementation and maintenance of corporate and site-specific performance objectives and targets to facilitate continual improvement.

Predictive modelling – We use computer models of the environment to analyze and predict potential short and long-term residual impacts to the environment associated with our operations, including the potential impact of our water discharges and water withdrawal. The analysis of potential residual effects can be an iterative process and influences the way we plan to conduct activities (i.e. the process continues until the risk of residual effects is reduced to a level that is not significant).

Diversion – The best way to keep water clean is to keep it from coming into contact with our processes. Where possible, practical and economical, we divert water or otherwise keep it from contacting radioactive materials or mineralized rock. In some cases these clean water streams are collected and discharged by us, while in other cases we divert the water completely around our operations. By doing this, we reduce the amount of water we use and ultimately need to treat and discharge.

Reduction – In our underground mines in northern Saskatchewan, we need to actively collect water that flows into the underground mines from the surrounding rock structures and pump it out to mitigate the risk of water inflow. Some techniques we use to minimize the amount of water that flows into the mines include ground freezing prior to advancement, pressure grouting, shotcrete and cable bolts.

Treatment – All of our process water is discharged in accordance with our operating approvals. We use conventional and non-conventional water treatment, such as reverse osmosis, and management processes to ensure water is safe before it is released to the environment.

Monitoring – At all our sites, we have approved environmental monitoring programs that include regular sampling, testing and reporting of discharge water, surface water and groundwater. As an example of the extensive water monitoring we conduct, at the McArthur River operation, we monitor water quality in treated water monitoring ponds prior to discharge, in the treated water discharge stream, and at approved sampling locations within the downstream surface water environment. At our northern Saskatchewan mine and mill sites, we also monitor other elements of the aquatic ecosystem such as fish and sediment on a regular basis to ensure we are not causing undue risk to the environment.

Reporting – We report the results of our water quality monitoring to regulators, communities of interest and the public regularly. On our main Cameco website, we post monthly water quality results from our end of release pipe testing at our mine and mill operations in northern Saskatchewan for a variety of constituents of potential concern, which are the same constituents we report on in this report. On our Fuel Services Division website we also post our quarterly and annual compliance reports.

Ongoing research and continuous improvement – We’ve made significant investments to improve the quality of water we release to the environment. We continue to invest in new water treatment technologies and look for ways to optimize our treatment circuits to make sure the water we release to the environment is fully compliant and as clean as reasonably and practically possible. Through this approach, we’ve seen significant reductions in molybdenum and selenium in treated water released from our Saskatchewan mining and milling operations to surface water bodies. At Smith Ranch-Highland, we have seen similar reductions in arsenic, selenium and uranium in treated water released through irrigation.

ISR well field restoration – Once we’re done extracting ore from our U.S. well fields, we restore the groundwater to its pre-mining state, or an equivalent state. We’ve successfully restored three well fields to date and we’re working on 10 others (five in Nebraska and five in Wyoming). In Kazakhstan, a form of passive groundwater restoration, known as attenuation, is the accepted restoration protocol. Chemicals present in the host rock neutralize acidic mining solutions. Other natural chemical reactions immobilize remaining contaminants trapping them in the mining area.