- Cameco (CCO) has revealed heavy losses in its second quarterly report, due to COVID-19 related suspensions at a number of its facilities
- Cameco generated a net loss of C$53 million during the quarter, following the temporary shutdown at the company’s Cigar Lake mine in Saskatchewan, as well as its Blind River refinery and Port Hope conversion plan
- The closures resulted in more than $37 million in maintenance costs
- Despite a planned restart at Cigar Lake scheduled for September, the company was forced to drop its annual production outlook to 5.3 million pounds of uranium
- Cameco (CCO) is down 12.16 per cent and is trading at $14.08 per share
Cameco (CCO) has revealed heavy losses in its second quarterly report, due to COVID-19 related suspensions at a number of its facilities.
Cameco generated a net loss of C$53 million during the quarter, following the temporary shutdown at the company’s Cigar Lake mine in Saskatchewan, as well as its Blind River refinery and Port Hope conversion plant.
The latter two facilities were able to restart operations in May, following the easing of COVID-19 safety regulations. Meanwhile, Cameco plans to restart operations at Cigar Lake at the beginning of September.
The closures resulted in more than $37 million in maintenance costs and forced the company to drop its annual production outlook to 5.3 million pounds of uranium.
However, the pandemic’s impact on the global uranium supply has resulted in a recent spike in the resource’s price. This is likely to at least be partially off-set by higher-than-expected unit costs due to new safety and health protocols, once Cigar Lake restarts production.
Despite the impact of the shutdown, Tim Gitzel, Cameco’s President and CEO, said he expects the company’s business to be resilient.
“We remain resolved in our strategy to build long-term value. We continue to expect that security of supply will be a priority for our customers and a rising price environment will provide us with the opportunity to add value with our tier-one assets.
“Embedded in all our decisions is a commitment to addressing the environmental, social and governance risks and opportunities that we believe will make our business sustainable over the long term,” he added.
Cameco (CCO) is down 12.16 per cent and is trading at $14.08 per share at 12:07pm EDT.
