Cameco Controls the Uranium Refinery That Canada Cannot Afford to Lose

Cameco (NYSE: CCJ) owns the largest commercial uranium refinery in the world. And it's not in Kazakhstan, China, or Russia. It's in Blind River, Ontario, Canada.

The Blind River refinery takes uranium concentrate (commonly called yellowcake) and removes impurities to produce uranium trioxide, or UO₃. That material is then shipped to Cameco's Port Hope facility, where it's converted into what ultimately becomes nuclear fuel. Blind River currently has a production capacity of 18 million kilograms of uranium annually and is licensed for up to 24 million kilograms. Indeed, Cameco is much more than just a uranium miner.

Mining uranium is only the beginning of the nuclear fuel cycle. Before uranium can fuel most reactors, it has to be refined, converted, and, depending on the reactor, enriched and fabricated into fuel rods. Cameco participates in several of those steps.

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