Cameco CEO says more countries will look to Canada for energy

Saskatoon-based uranium company Cameco recently struck a 12-year deal with Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned power provider.

More countries could follow suit.

The European Union was heavily reliant on Russian gas, but Cameco CEO Tim Gitzel told Gormley that might change in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“What we’re seeing is a real market realignment,” Gitzel said. “We call it a bifurcation of the market, which means countries that used to be reliant on Russia for their fuel are now looking elsewhere.”

Gitzel said power companies would look to “geopolitically stable” jurisdictions that can supply fuel, such as Canada.

“And guess what? That’s right here in Saskatchewan with Cameco,” said Gitzel.

He went on to explain how uranium is processed and sent to other countries.

Cameco mines it in Saskatchewan and then sends the uranium to its facilities in Ontario, where it is converted to Uf6 gas. From there, the uf6 gas has to be enriched.

“(The uranium can be enriched) in Europe or the United States,” Gitzel said. “And then it gets fabricated into fuel. So Cameco, of course, does uranium mining, the conversion piece (and) we’re working on enrichment down in the States on a new laser enrichment project.

“And of course, once our acquisition of Westinghouse closes, we’ll be able to do the fabricated fuel as well. So we’re going to go coast to coast on this. Our chips are all in.”

Gitzel said Cameco will be able to provide power to a number of Eastern European countries if Cameco is able to acquire American nuclear power company Westinghouse.