Cameco said the average employee gets exposed to a very small amount of radiation per year — less than most CT scans.

Taryn Roske, an employee of 16 years, spends 13 hours underground each day using the jet boring system.

She’s the first and only female operator of the machine, and sometimes she’s the only woman underground in a workforce that is about 12 per cent female. Roske said it has allowed her to develop a thick skin in an industry dominated by men.

“I think sometimes people have fragile egos and having a woman in a non-traditional role is sometimes hard for people to accept,” Roske said. “I am trying to prove that, just because I’m a woman, doesn’t mean that I’m not capable of doing the job.”

The hours are long, but so is the time off.

Employees fly into the site, with most working two weeks straight. They then fly back home and stay there for another two weeks before doing it all over again.

There’s a camp that provides meals, a gym and activities, including card game tournaments and movie nights. Workers can also go to nearby Waterbury Lake — which the mine’s water source — for boating or fishing.

For Cessa Fern, it’s a family affair.

Her father, Victor Fern Jr., is the mine’s maintenance supervisor. Her grandfather, Victor Fern Sr., also works for the company as a community relations liaison in nearby Fond du Lac.

In the Fern family, one generation inspires the next.

“When I was younger, I was confused and was like, ‘Why does my dad have to leave for two weeks?’ But now that I’m older, I understand why he’s doing it,” Cessa Fern said.

“It’s really cool.”

Victor Sr. said mining is one of few employment opportunities for people in northern Saskatchewan.

“When I got the opportunity, I was happy that I got a chance,” he said.

Back underground, once the miners extract the slurry, it goes to nearby mill to become a uranium concentrate known as “yellowcake.” Cameco then ships it off to buyers in Ontario, the United States, Europe and Asia. It is used for nuclear power.

“I like to refer to Cigar Lake as a boutique mine,” said Kirk Lamont, the mine’s general manager. “It’s a small mine, but very high grade, very specialized.”

Canada is the world’s second-largest uranium producer, with all of it coming from just three mines in the Athabasca basin of northern Saskatchewan. Cigar Lake produces eight million kilograms a year, enough to power the province’s electricity grid for 22 years.

Figures from Cameco show 45 per cent of its employees are residents of northern Saskatchewan and 46 per cent are Indigenous.

The company has signed collaboration agreements with several First Nations communities, focusing on jobs, development and the environment.

“We operate on treaty territory,” Lamont said. “It’s the right thing to do.”

As for the environment, water used for mining gets treated and tested before going back into Waterbury Lake. The remaining solids and other radiologically contaminated waste are bagged and stored away. The bags are later used to fill tunnels after they’ve been mined.

“The water that comes out (of the lake) is clean,” Lamont said. “The water that goes in is clean.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2026.

Jeremy Simes, The Canadian Press