I tend not to repost the mining reports that cross my gmail feed. I have a subscription set up for any news item that mentions Uranium City. Most of it is either irrelevant or trivial. Mining companies have been going in and out of the Uranium City area for decades, including multiple companies have tried to develop the old Goldfields site, which closed in the early ’40s, but nothing ever seemed to come of it until very recently (more on this anon). The Appia rare earth holding at Alces Lake has so far gone nowhere – I actually invested a trivial amount of money in Appia stock a few years ago but it’s dropped considerably in value. The lack of development is surprising, given all the buzz around rare earth minerals lately, but given the logistics of transporting ore from first Alces Lake to a port on Lake Athabasca, then across Lake Athabasca itself, perhaps it’s not surprising at all.

But development goes on, with exploration companies swarming over the area. Sask Tel had a crew of 50 camped in town – on the site of the former skating and curling rins – overhauling the energy infrastructure, which may or may not be a sign of something opening up. And companies like Xcite are aggresively exploring and drilling, all over the area:

So perhaps mines WILL re-open in the area again. All Uranium City needs is one mine to open successfully, the transportation links to follow, and others would surely follow as the greatest single obstacle to opening a mine north of Lake Athabasca is the staggering cost of building the infrastructure to sustain it. One mine, even two or three, will never be enough to bring Uranium City back to its pre-1982 population of just under 4,000, but it would certainly increase the town’s present permanent population of 60 or so. Local mines would mean more local jobs, more demand for local businesses. It would mean investment by the provincial and federal governments in long-neglected infrastructure.

Only time will tell.

Full article here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/stocks/XRI-CN/pressreleases/300574/xcite-expand-uranium-city-uranium-projects/