Grandey admits Cigar Lake mistakes
Murray Lyons
The StarPhoenix
Saturday, May 05, 2007
Cameco Corp. president and CEO Jerry Grandey admitted Friday the company's operation of the Cigar Lake uranium mine, which flooded in October, "did not meet expectations."
Cameco is promising a massive overhaul of procedures following a "root cause" study into two floods at Cigar Lake last year.
A report, done for Cameco by an independent third party, has been delivered to the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission (CNSC). The company released the report Friday.
Grandey told investment analysts on a conference call Friday that the report identifies a number of root causes of the October flood, including failure to follow procedures in shoring up development tunnels.
"In the period leading up to the flooding, we made a number of decisions at Cigar Lake based upon assumptions the ground conditions in the tunnel were better than they were," he said.
"Together, these decisions and assumptions contributed to the water inflow."
A separate report on an earlier flood in April concluded Cameco had failed to identify a major underground water source in the site chosen to sink the No. 2 shaft. That shaft had to be abandoned. The root cause report into that flood concluded neither Cameco nor its contractor had identified risk scenarios, nor did they have necessary controls in place to prevent the flooding of the shaft.
"In both of these events, I'm disappointed to tell you we made mistakes," Grandey said. "Our performance did not meet expectations.
"This is not acceptable to me and it is certainly not acceptable to our employees."
Several financial analysts participating in the conference call lambasted Cameco. One called the report a "whitewash," and another suggested the problem wouldn't be corrected by a mere tightening of procedures.
William Vogel, an analyst with Harbor View Growth Equity Management in Connecticut, said Cameco appeared to have a "lax" corporate culture. He said he would have expected the company would "have fired a lot of people," considering that lives were at stake in the mine.
"I don't think you have a standards problem. I think you have a people problem," Vogel said.
In reponse, Grandey says Cameco is putting new management into place and creating a separate division for development projects such as Cigar Lake. These will be managed separately from the mines that are producing uranium.
Grandey says this will ensure a "culture change that is required" will be made at Cigar Lake.
"In the final analysis, the systems were there, they just weren't being adhered to and implemented," Grandey said. "That's not something that we're particularly proud of, but the first response is the management structural changes we're putting in place."
Analyst Greg Barnes of TD Newcrest asked Grandey on the conference call whether he feared Cameco would be sued by its minority partners in Cigar Lake, led by French state-owned nuclear company Areva and several Japanese electrical utility companies that have held at stake in Cigar Lake for several decades.
"None of that can be ruled out," Grandey said. "I think right now all partners are focused on remediation and getting this mine into development and into production.
"From my perspective, I don't think we need the distraction, taking us away from that primary mission. But those are decisions others would make."
mlyons@sp.canwest.com
© The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) 2007
...vom stockhouse board - http://www.stockhouse.ca/bullb…e=LIST&navmode=1&navd=rev
...Beschiss wo Du guckst und spuckst 
Cameco ATH - das dürfte wohl etwas angekratzt werden 
linar 
und das war der Schlusskurs heute ---> C$ 8.85 super (hab meine zwar schon gegeben, freue mich trotzdem ;))
EMC sind weg 
aber da sah ich Herrn Grandich nur noch von hinten 
![:]](https://goldseiten-forum.com/wcf/images/smilies/pleased.gif "Freude"){kind=small}