Cameco's Cigar Lake mine, located in northern Saskatchewan, is recognized as the world's highest-grade uranium mine. This significant mine alone contributes approximately 11% of the global annual uranium demand, addressing the increasing need for energy driven by data centers and the burgeoning artificial intelligence sector.

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Cameco's Cigar Lake mine, located in northern Saskatchewan, is recognized as the world's highest-grade uranium mine. This significant mine alone contributes approximately 11% of the global annual uranium demand, addressing the increasing need for energy driven by data centers and the burgeoning artificial intelligence sector. Due to its complex deposits, Cameco had to innovate a specialized mining technique to efficiently extract uranium from Cigar Lake.

The unique mining process involves workers operating 450 meters underground, drilling upwards into uranium-rich pockets. The technique employs high-speed water jets to extract the ore, which is then transported through pipes, ground into a sand-like form, and pumped to the surface. This method, known as the specialized jet boring system, allows for efficient access to the high-grade uranium despite the challenging conditions.

Cameco emerges as the largest uranium producer in the Western hemisphere, with Cigar Lake being its second-largest mine. Within the nuclear industry, there is considerable interest from technology giants like Microsoft and Google, who require substantial supplies of clean electricity. Cameco, however, does not publicize the portion of its uranium that reaches the U.S., though Canada is a significant supplier, providing about 30% of the U.S.'s needs. Amid ongoing geopolitical tensions, mines such as Cigar Lake hold increasing strategic importance.



A look at the world's highest-grade uranium mine

Back to Worldwide Exchange. The nuclear industry is having a renaissance as data centers and the A.I. boom drive energy demand. The key factor in me that demand is uranium. Our Pippa Stevens got an inside look at one of the early winners of the energy race chemical and its cigar lake mine in northern Saskatchewan. Good morning Frank. We're about 1600 feet underground at the world's highest grade uranium mine. This mine alone cigar lake supplies about 11 percent of global annual uranium demand. But it's a really challenging deposit meaning that chemical had to develop an entirely new mining technique to get to the uranium. Workers go down into the earth 450 meters. By comparison the Empire State Building is four hundred and forty three meters tall. They then drill upwards into pockets of the uranium rich or shooting water at high speeds to extract the material. It's transported underground through a series of pipes ground into a sand like substance and pumped to the surface. We got an exclusive look at the mine's unique drilling process. Parts of this area have already been mined. You can tell because if you look up at the ceiling you can see where the jet boring system drilled upwards to access the ore. And now because they got all of the ore out of that cavity it's been backfilled with concrete. Now Cigar Lake developed a specialized jet boring system to access this very high grade of uranium. The system runs along these tracks so that they can move it along the length of this tunnel. Cameco is the biggest uranium producer in the West and Cigar Lake is its second largest mine. The nuclear industry overall is benefiting from a number of tailwinds. Most recently support from big tech. It came on very fast. All of a sudden about a year ago or maybe a year and a half ago we started hearing about these hyperscalers the Microsoft the Google NVIDIA like needing meta needing massive amounts of clean electricity and being responsible for the electrons that they were going to use and say let's start to look at nuclear and say hey we want to be in on the nuclear piece. Cameco doesn't disclose how much of its uranium goes to the U.S. but it's the only meaningful producer in Canada which supplies about 30 percent of the U.S.'s uranium. And with geopolitical tensions rising including around nuclear power mines like this one are becoming increasingly important. Frank.

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