Cigar Lake
| Cigar Lake | ||
|---|---|---|
| Geographical location | Canada | |
| Data | ||
| Coordinates | 58 ° 3 ′ 0 ″ N , 104 ° 31 ′ 0 ″ W | |
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The Cigar Lake is a lake in Saskatchewan , northern Canada .
Uranium deposits
Below the region there is the second largest known uranium deposit in the world after McArthur River , Canada. The lenticular ore body lies at a depth of 450 meters. The uranium deposit is two kilometers long and between 50 and 100 meters wide. Its thickness varies between 1 and 20 meters. The uranium deposit was found in connection with electromagnetic investigations, which showed graphite in the bedrock. Graphite is often found in conjunction with uranium. The ore body under Cigar Lake was formed over 1.3 billion years ago. The uranium oxide concentration averages 14 percent, but in some places it can be up to almost 21 percent.
No natural split
Natural nuclear fission (see natural reactor ) never occurred at Cigar Lake. There are too many other substances currently in existence that will absorb the free neutrons needed to start the fission process. The ore body is surrounded by a 1 to 20 meter thick layer of clay , which prevents the radioactive substances from being transported into the surrounding area by groundwater flow. The uranium deposit is a natural counterpart to a repository . No increased radioactivity can be found on the surface of the uranium deposits at Cigar Lake , even if the clay that surrounds the ore body is more permeable to water than the bentonite clay at repositories.
use
The mining is operated by a consortium of companies led by the world's largest uranium producer Cameco Corporation (50%) and AREVA Resources Canada Inc. (37%) in addition to the Japanese Idemitsu Uranium Exploration Canada Ltd. (8%) and TEPCO Resources Inc. (5%). On October 22, 2006 a water ingress occurred, which impaired the intended increase in production to 7,000 t annually. In the summer of 2008, work began on pumping the water out of the mine. It was found that massive water penetrated again. This calls into question the intended start of production by 2011/2012. According to a market analyst, the loss of Cigar Lake and thus a loss of coverage of 10% of the world's uranium requirements equates to the "loss of Saudi Arabia for the oil market" for the uranium industry.
The mine cost 660 million Canadian dollars to build.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Major flood at Cigar Lake , October 23, 2006 ( September 29, 2007 memento in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Cameco Unable to Contain Water Inflow at Cigar Lake , October 23, 2006 ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ The Cameco Cigar Lake mine suffered another water ingress . EMFIS. August 14, 2008. Archived from the original on June 23, 2015. Retrieved October 8, 2008.
- ↑ See “The uranium is getting scarce”, Frankfurter Rundschau, August 8, 2010