About the Athabasca Basin
Saskatchewan's Athabasca Basin provides one third of the world's uranium production credited primarily to that region's unusually high ore grade deposits. The average contained U3O8 value of these deposits at current prices is well over $3 billion US each ranging from small mines of $150 million US to the largest, McArthur River, now valued in today’s dollars at over $35 billion US. As of 2007, fully delineated and publicly announced discoveries in the Athabasca basin total in excess of 1.6 billion lbs U3O8.
The most unique aspect related to the Athabasca finds is the high ore grade (concentration of uranium). Uranium can be economically mined at concentrations of as low as .03% with the average grade of mined uranium deposits in the world sitting at about .15%. The average ore grade of the 30 identified deposits in this region is greater than 3%. In fact, the two largest deposits (Cigar Lake and McArthur River) have average ore grades of 15 to 22% respectively, reaching as high as 80% in some pockets. |
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