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“We have sort of plans and blueprints, and we’re looking at constructing something called this ‘Project Execution Plan,’ ” said SRC environmental remediation manager Ian Wilson. “How are we best going to execute those blueprints, in essence, to be efficient with public money, to be safe and to maximize local benefit and capacity-building?”

Photo by Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan, StarPhoenix collection, R-A5209.

Once the project execution plan is in place, a similar procurement process will be used to select a contractor to carry out the work. SRC plans to choose a contractor within the next six months, a timeframe that could allow preparatory work on the project — which is estimated to take between four and seven field seasons — to begin this summer, Wilson said.

The Gunnar mine site is southwest of Uranium City, about 800 kilometres north of Saskatoon. Gunnar Mining Limited, the company that operated the mine, no longer exists.

Between 2010 and 2012, SRC demolished buildings left on the site, but the tailings deposits, 2.2 million cubic metres of waste rock and the mine pit — which was flooded with water from nearby Lake Athabasca before the site was abandoned — all require cleanup work.

The total cost of decontaminating the site has grown dramatically since the project was announced. In 2006, it was expected to cost $24.6 million. The current estimate is $268 million, more than ten times the original valuation, of which about $60 million has been spent. It’s unclear who will foot the bill.