Cameco lifts Cigar Lake stake to 57.4% as its partner's mill goes down

Cameco closed the purchase of TEPCO Resources' 5% participating interest in the Cigar Lake joint venture on July 2, 2026, taking its ownership of the mine to 57.418% from the 54.5% its operations page showed at the end of 2025; Orano's share rose to 42.582% [2][4]. The price was not disclosed in the release.

The timing was awkward. On July 1 Cameco said Cigar Lake had suspended production because the sulfuric acid plant at Orano's McClean Lake mill, which processes all of Cigar Lake's ore 70 km from the mine, had shut for repairs; the company expected the mill back in about two weeks and warned the repairs could take longer [1][4]. On July 14 it reported that the mill had resumed, that stockpiled ore was shipping and that mining had restarted. The 2026 outlook for Cigar Lake, 17.5 million to 18.0 million pounds of U₃O₈ on a 100% basis, was left unchanged [3].

For a U.S. holder of CCJ the point is structural rather than the two lost weeks. Cameco now owns more of a mine whose every pound passes through a partner's plant, and the first word of trouble came from that partner's side. The mill belongs in any model of Cigar Lake next to the grade.