It would seem the world's number one producer of uranium will have to stay in 'damage control' a little longer with management announcing at an analyst conference call the company has asked utilities to defer delivery from Cigar Lake uranium mine production by between five to seven years.

According to various media reports, Cameco management tried to emphasise during the conference call this should not be interpreted as that pulling the troubled mine into production is now to be deferred by a similar amount of years.

The news is nevertheless regarded a negative one for the Canadian headquartered company, and likely as a positive one for others in the sector as it will keep the uranium market tighter than previously anticipated.

Cameco's Cigar Lake mine flooded on October 23 last year. The company's forecast was for the mine to have delivered about four million pounds of uranium to customers in the latter part of 2007. Cameco officials went at pains to explain that for now it's just the 2007 production from Cigar Lake that is being deferred.

Cameco's share price lost circa 2.5% yesterday.


- Rudi Filapek-Vandyck