Cameco Boosts Cigar Lake Uranium Mine Stake to 57.4%
Cameco acquires TEPCO's 5% stake in Cigar Lake, raising its ownership in the Saskatchewan uranium mine to over 57%.
Cameco just got a bigger slice of one of the world's most productive uranium mines. The Canadian uranium giant — traded on both the TSX and NYSE — has closed a deal to absorb TEPCO Resources Inc.'s 5% interest in the Cigar Lake joint venture, located in northern Saskatchewan. It's a straightforward ownership shuffle, but one that meaningfully shifts the balance of control at a mine that matters a lot to global uranium supply.
Here's how the math shakes out: Cameco's share of Cigar Lake climbed by roughly 2.87 percentage points, landing the company at a 57.418% ownership stake. Its joint-venture partner, Orano Canada Inc., also picked up a portion of TEPCO's exit, adding about 2.13 percentage points to its own position. In plain terms, TEPCO Resources — the Canadian arm of Japanese utility Tokyo Electric Power — is completely out, and its two remaining partners divided the spoils.
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For everyday investors watching the uranium space, this kind of consolidation is worth paying attention to. Cigar Lake is one of the highest-grade uranium deposits on the planet, meaning it produces a lot of uranium relative to the ore mined. When a company like Cameco quietly increases its footprint there, it's essentially locking in more future production capacity without having to build anything new — a pretty efficient way to grow.
The deal also reflects a broader trend of Japanese utilities reassessing their nuclear-related assets abroad, years after the Fukushima disaster reshaped Japan's energy policy. Whether you're a uranium bull or just tracking commodity markets, Cameco's tightened grip on Cigar Lake is a signal worth filing away as nuclear energy continues its global comeback narrative.
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