Key Lake mine

The Key Lake mine is a former uranium mine in Saskatchewan, Canada. It is 570 kilometres (350 mi) north of Saskatoon by air on the southern rim of the uranium-rich Athabasca Basin. Key Lake was initially developed to open-pit mine two nearby uranium ore deposits: the Gaertner deposit and the Deilmann deposit. Mining of this ore ceased in the late 1990s; the Key Lake mill now processes uranium ore from the McArthur River mine and from existing stockpiles on site. High-grade ore from McArthur river is blended with lower grade local rock before being passed through the mill. The mill has a permitted annual production capacity of 25 million pounds of U3O8. In addition, ammonium sulfate fertilizer is produced as a byproduct from used reagents. The pits of the mined out local deposits are being used as mill tailings management facilities. Its deposits jointly remain one of the higher grade large uranium deposits discovered, with an average grade of over 2% U3O8. Key Lake was the third largest uranium deposit in the Athabasca Basin and is surpassed only by McArthur River and Cigar Lake. Uranium exploration was carried out by a joint venture led by Uranerz Exploration and Mining, a subsidiary of German Uranerzbergbau GmbH. Uranium anomalies in lake water detected in 1969 were followed up in 1971 with the location of radioactive pitchblende boulders in transported overburden, which were

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