Reaching saskatchewan’s north permanent access road to cameco’s cigar lake project

摘要

Cameco Corporation is the world’s largest uranium producer headquartered in Saskatoon, SK,Their uranium reserves in Northern Saskatchewan are the highest grade in the world. Cameco is currentlyin the process of developing the Cigar Lake Project, located by air 660 km north of Saskatoon. As part oftheir processes the ore slurry will be trucked on permanent access roads to either Rabbit Lake orMcClean Lake for processing, about 75 km from Cigar Lake. With these uranium deposits located in theundeveloped Northern regions, providing access to these sites brings very unique challenges. This paperwill discuss the design and construction challenges for the 52 km of permanent access road from theCigar Lake Mine Site to Highway No. 905. The project included over one million cubic metres ofearthworks, crossed seven fish-bearing streams (two with bridge structures), encountered significant cutand fill areas, and provided unique environmental and road top stabilization challenges.