Wheeler River Project – Final Submission of Documents to Support a Licence Application to Prepare Site and Construct a Uranium Mine and Mill

November 22, 2024

Ms. Janna Switzer
Vice President, Environment, Sustainability and Regulatory
Denison Mines
Saskatoon Office
345 4^th Avenue South
Saskatoon, SK S7K 1N3

Subject: Wheeler River Project – Final Submission of Documents to Support a Licence Application to Prepare Site and Construct a Uranium Mine and Mill

Ms. Switzer,

With reference to the Wheeler River Project licence application, received July 4, 2023, I write to confirm that CNSC staff have performed a sufficiency check of the licensing documents submitted by Denison pursuant section 8.1 of the Uranium Mines and Mills Regulations (the Regulations). CNSC staff have determined that the documents Denison provided are sufficiently detailed and that section 8.3(1) of the Regulations is triggered. This section stipulates:

8.3(1) The Commission shall render its decision in respect of an application within a time period of 24 months from the day on which the notice is posted in accordance with paragraph 8.2(b).

Note that section 8.3(2) of the Regulations contains various exclusions from the licensing timeframe in section 8.3(1). This includes paragraph 8.3(2)(d), which stipulates:

(d) any period that is required to conduct, and render a decision on, an environmental assessment of the proposed preparation of the site for, and construction of, the uranium mine or mill, or its operation, decommissioning or abandonment, by any jurisdiction that is obligated by law to conduct that assessment and render a decision.

As the federal environmental assessment for the Wheeler River Project is still progressing, the exclusion above applies. This excludes the Wheeler River Project from the requirement for the Commission to render a decision within 24 months from the date on which the notice is posted.

CNSC staff continue to work on both the environmental assessment and the technical assessment of licensing aspects in Denison’s file as a matter of priority, in preparation for a Commission Hearing at some point in the future.

Sincerely,

Candace Salmon
Commission Registrar
Commission Registry
Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission

cc: K. Himbeault, R. Nagel, B. England, Regulatory (Denison)
L. Sigouin, P. Burton, K. Gorzkowski, D. Pandolfi, T. Takala, D. Beaton, N. Kwamena,
J. Way, B. Duhaime (CNSC)