McArthur River / Key Lake is a mining facility operated by Cameco Corporation in Canada. It produced 7,808 tU/yr in 2024.
The highest-grade uranium mine in the world, with ore averaging over 6% U, roughly a hundred times the global average grade. The ore is so radioactive that it is mined remotely by raise-boring and non-entry methods, then trucked 80 km to the Key Lake mill for processing.
| Stage | Mining and milling |
|---|---|
| Operator | Cameco Corporation |
| Country | Canada |
| Reported output | 7,808tU/yr |
| Figure applies to | 2024 |
| Status | operating |
| Commissioned | not stated |
| Coordinates | 57.7667, -105.0333 |
No disclosed capacity, so its share of world mining capacity cannot be stated.
Cameco Corporation also operates:
- Port Hope Conversion Facility (conversion)
- Cameco Fuel Manufacturing, Port Hope (fabrication)
- Cigar Lake (mining)
- Smith Ranch-Highland (mining)
Other mining facilities
| Facility | Capacity | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Cigar Lake | 6,501tU/yr | operating |
| Husab | 4,437tU/yr | operating |
| Karatau (Budenovskoye 2) | 3,299tU/yr | operating |
| Inkai, sites 1-3 | 2,992tU/yr | operating |
| Akdala and South Inkai | 2,803tU/yr | operating |
| Olympic Dam | 2,693tU/yr | operating |
| Moinkum and Tortkuduk (KATCO) | 2,388tU/yr | operating |
| Rössing | 2,205tU/yr | operating |
| Smith Ranch-Highland | 2,116tU/yr | operating |
| Khorassan 1 | 2,030tU/yr | operating |
| White Mesa Mill | 2,000short tons ore/day | operating |
| Central Mynkuduk | 1,650tU/yr | operating |
| Budenovskoye 1, 3 & 4 (Akbastau) | 1,545tU/yr | operating |
| Four Mile | 1,503tU/yr | operating |
| Kharasan 2 (Baiken-U) | 1,315tU/yr | operating |
| South Moinkum and Kanzhugan | 1,273tU/yr | operating |
| Ross Central Processing Plant | 1,154tU/yr | operating |
| Khiagda | 1,103tU/yr | operating |
| Priargunsky | 1,047tU/yr | operating |
| Somaïr (Arlit) | 960tU/yr | operating |
| Honeymoon | 942tU/yr | operating |
| Irkol | 940tU/yr | operating |
| Yining | 850tU/yr | operating |
| Western Mynkuduk (Appak) | 830tU/yr | operating |
| North and South Karamurun | 830tU/yr | operating |
| Lost Creek | 769tU/yr | operating |
| Zarechnoye | 741tU/yr | operating |
| Langer Heinrich | 691tU/yr | operating |
| Dalur | 588tU/yr | operating |
| Alta Mesa | 577tU/yr | operating |
| Willow Creek | 500tU/yr | operating |
| Fuzhou | 350tU/yr | operating |
| Caetité (Lagoa Real) | 340tU/yr | operating |
| Tummalapalle | 220tU/yr | operating |
| Shaoguan | 200tU/yr | operating |
| Tongliao | 200tU/yr | operating |
| Jaduguda mine and mill | 200tU/yr | operating |
| Turamdih mine and mill | 190tU/yr | operating |
| Northern Mining Directorate (Uchkuduk) | not disclosed | operating |
| Central Mining Directorate (Zarafshan) | not disclosed | operating |
| Mining Directorate No. 5 (Zafarabad) | not disclosed | operating |
| Southern Mining Directorate (Nurabad) | not disclosed | operating |
| Ingulska | not disclosed | operating |
| Smolinska | not disclosed | operating |
| Novokostiantynivska | not disclosed | operating |
| Moab Khotsong | not disclosed | operating |
At the market indicator. 7,808 tU produced in 2024, valued at US$ 89.68 per lb U₃O₈ spot, comes to roughly US$ 1.82 billion a year, or US$ 1.96 billion at the long-term indicator. Treat both as scale, not revenue: most volume moves under contracts signed years earlier at prices neither figure reflects, and nothing here is netted against the cost of producing it. The indicators, and forty years of history behind them, are on fuel market prices.
Sources
- World Nuclear Association, World Uranium Mining Production · retrieved 2026-09-06
How these sources are used, including the corrections applied on top of them and what is deliberately left blank · download the underlying data