Word: mcarthur
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...vast evergreen forests laced with lakes and streams, windblown sand ridges--and the world's richest deposits of uranium. From this Canadian wilderness, centered on the Athabasca Basin, fully a quarter of the world's annual supply of uranium is unearthed, most of it from a single mine called McArthur River. In a world increasingly concerned about the flow and price of oil from the Middle East, demand for the mine's controversial product is quietly rising...
...McArthur River isn't much to look at from above ground--just a cluster of green, corrugated-metal buildings, a company lodge and an airstrip--but the mine is an industrial marvel. The rocks underground average 21% pure uranium, with pockets as concentrated as 80%, far richer than the typical 1% deposits at other mines. The ore at McArthur River is the richest in the world and is far too radioactive to handle conventionally; the miners extract it by remote control, using giant boring machines and scoop trams instead of pickaxes and shovels...
Since uranium was discovered at McArthur River in 1988, its corporate owner, Cameco, based in Saskatoon, Sask., has spent $277 million to develop it. Considering that the price of uranium has languished below the cost of production for most of the intervening years, Cameco's investment might seem like a fool's wager--until you look at what is happening in the battered market for U3O8, the raw uranium that's refined and enriched for use in nuclear reactors...
Even as the debate over long-term storage of spent nuclear fuel raged during the 1990s, U.S. uranium consumption rose about 35% over the decade, to about 55 million lbs. in 2001. That makes Cameco's bet on McArthur River--and the firm's nearby mine, Cigar Lake, which could begin production around mid-decade--look a lot less foolish...
...What makes him unique is his capacity to combine intellect with enthusiasm for the public good,” John W. McArthur, who is Sachs’ chief research fellow, said last month...