Environmental Assessment of a High-Grade Uranium Mine

Abstract

The McArthur River uranium ore body was discovered in 1988. By February, 1991, sufficient ore reserves had been identified to proceed with mine development and the Atomic Energy Control Board (AECB) was notified of this intention by the McArthur River Joint Venture. The AECB referred the project to the Federal Environmental Assessment Review Office, which initiated an environmental assessment process which has taken over six years to complete. That assessment process has solicited public opinion on nine occasions, three of these being public hearings, generated 13,000 pages of environmental impact statement and thousands more pages of intervenor presentations, technical consultants reports and expert witness statements, resulting in a report from the assessment panel in February, 1997, and culminating in recommendations from the federal and Saskatchewan governments in May, 1997, that the project should proceed. At this point the formal licensing process could begin, which should result in an operating licence for the project in the third quarter of 1999. The authors are firmly committed to environmental protection in the development of natural resources, but question the necessity for scrutiny at the level to which this project has been subjected.