The Chief Financial Officer of Cameco told an international mining conference that the uranium industry was already experiencing an upward trend in the market with many regions looking to nuclear energy as a clean energy option, and then everything changed on February 24th. Grant Isaac says that’s the day Russia invaded Ukraine, which caused an unprecedented geo-political alignment. It meant Russia’s customers in the nuclear industry began looking elsewhere for their needs.

He adds that Cameco is positioned extraordinarily well, and remains in supply discipline mode, which means holding on to assets to hold out for higher prices. Cameco announced in February it would be restarting its McArthur River mine and Key Lake mill in northern Saskatchewan this year, as the uranium market continues to improve.
The Saskatoon-based mining company reported at the time that McArthur River would operate at 60 per cent capacity in 2024 and the Cigar Lake mine would be at 75 per cent.