By Brad Jennings
May 8, 2021 12:22 PM
Cameco is reporting a quarterly loss of $5 million and an adjusted net loss of $29 million.
President and CEO Tim Gitzel says these results were as expected, adding Cameco has been very deliberate in shoring up their balance sheet. He explains at the end of the first quarter Cameco had negative net debt, with $1 billion in cash and $1 billion undrawn credit facility. Gitzel says Cameco has the financial capacity to self manage risk and maintain their strategic resolve.
Gitzel says due to unplanned disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameco is not at the regular tier-one run rate of their business. However he says during the quarter they were able to successfully add 9 million pounds of Uranium to their long-term contract portfolio.
May 8, 2021 12:53 PM
Cameco is reporting a quarterly loss of $5 million and an adjusted net loss of $29 million.
President and CEO Tim Gitzel says these results were as expected, adding Cameco has been very deliberate in shoring up their balance sheet. He explains at the end of the first quarter Cameco had negative net debt, with $1 billion in cash and $1 billion undrawn credit facility. Gitzel says Cameco has the financial capacity to self manage risk and maintain their strategic resolve.
Gitzel says due to unplanned disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, Cameco is not at the regular tier-one run rate of their business. However he says during the quarter they were able to successfully add 9 million pounds of Uranium to their long-term contract portfolio.
Despite financial losses, Cameco pleased with reopening of Cigar Lake mine
Even with a rocky start to the year, uranium mining company Cameco is happy with the recent reopening of its largest mine.
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Cameco reopened its Cigar Lake mine in April.(CBC) comments
Even with a rocky start to the year, uranium mining company Cameco is happy with the recent reopening of its largest mine.
On Friday, the company reported a net loss of $5 million in the first quarter of the year. The company blamed the loss in part on additional costs resulting from the closure of the Cigar Lake mine for roughly four months, starting in December 2020.
Cameco reports Q1 loss-cites COVID-19 shutdown at Cigar Lake
Cameco is reporting a net loss of $5 million and an adjusted net loss of $29 million for the first quarter of 2021.
The loss comes as the Cigar Lake mine was temporarily shutdown from December to April over COVID-19 concerns.
The uranium producer did continue to pay its employees.
The mine shut down cost $33 million, but that $12 million was recovered through the Canadian Employment Wage Subsidy.
The Cigar Lake mine did restart last month, sending its first shipment of ore to the McClean Lake mill at the end of April.
Cameco is crediting the vaccine rollout in Northern Saskatchewan for it to operate with greater safety and certainty.
Since the pandemic began, production at Cameco’s Cigar Lake mine has been suspended twice.
It shuttered in March 2020, shortly after the first COVID-19 case was reported in the province, and the on-site workforce was cut to 35 from around 300.
The mine restarted in the fall, but closed again in December. It reopened last month with what Gitzel described at the time as “enhanced safety protocols,” including distancing on flights to the remote site, medical-grade masks and on-site testing.
The first-quarter financial statement says its bottom line was affected by $33 million in additional care and maintenance costs from suspending the Cigar Lake mine’s production from December to April. All employees were paid during the suspension, a cost that was offset by $12 million from the Canadian Employment Wage Subsidy.