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The Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission has approved a licence for Nexgen Energy Ltd. to build a uranium mine in the Athabasca Basin, making it the second major uranium project the national regulator has licensed in Saskatchewan this year.
Nexgen’s Rook 1 project is an underground mine the Vancouver-based company plans to build in the southern Athabasca Basin about 150 kilometres north of La Loche, in Treaty 10 territory.
On Thursday, the commission announced it granted Nexgen a licence to construct a mine and mill at the project site. The company will have to apply to the commission for a licence to operate the mine.
Construction is scheduled to start this summer and is expected to finish in four years, according to a Nexgen news release. The company estimated the mine could produce up to 30 million pounds of uranium annually, or around 20 per cent of the current global fuel supply.
The company secured endorsements from Indigenous communities that are close to or have traditional territory affected by the project. Nexgen signed benefit agreements with the Clearwater River Dene Nation, Birch Narrows Dene Nation, Buffalo River Dene Nation and the Métis Nation—Saskatchewan (MN-S).
Details of the agreements are confidential but typically include employment and training guarantees, contracts for locally-owned businesses and financial benefits.
“It’s going to be life-changing for a lot of people with the opportunities,” MN-S local 39 president Keith Shewchuk said in an interview.
“Many of our community leaders have supported this … there’s so much opportunity for our youth and our entrepreneurs here to be able to participate in.”
Nexgen isn’t the only company looking to join Cameco Corp. as a uranium producer in Saskatchewan.
Last month, the commission granted Denison Mining Corp.’s Phoenix project — an in-situ uranium mine also in the Athabasca Basin — a licence to start building its mine and mill, which the company said would start this month.
Cameco just inked a nine-year, $2.6 billion deal to supply India with 22 million pounds of uranium beginning in 2027.
Trade and Export Minister Warren Kaeding told reporters in Regina that Nexgen’s mine will boost the local economy.
“[Mining] is one of their key areas of good, high-value jobs and career training opportunities,” Kaeding said.
“To have another facility like Nexgen approved and literally ready to put shovels in the ground tomorrow, I think it’s gonna be an incredible opportunity for our northerners and northern communities in that area.”
According to the Saskatchewan Mining Association, uranium mining employs more than 2,300 people in the province, and 49 per cent of people working in northern uranium mines are residents of the north.