Rabbit Lake Uranium

$30 million, grassroots mine and uranium ore processing complex located in northeastern Saskatchewan. Open-pit mining, stockpiling and mill charging accomplished using front-end loaders, semi-autogenous grinding, thickening and slurry storage, agitated leaching in wood stave tanks, five-stage counter-current decantation with clarification and sand filtation, solvent extraction, stripping, regeneration, precipitation, thickening, centrifuging, drying, product (U3O8) packing into steel drums and shipment. Rabbit Lake lies along the 58th parallel where winter temperatures drop to 50° below zero, limiting the construction season to six months per year. Surface access to the site was possible only during the six-week period in late winter when muskeg and lakes were sufficiently frozen to support vehicular traffic. Enough equipment, materials and supplies were brought in to sustain the following year’s construction effort. The entire uranium processing complex and support facilities were housed under one roof.