Major Drilling Group International Inc.’s team working on the Cameco Cree Zimmer project located at Key Lake Mine in northern Saskatchewan has received recognition for its outstanding safety record.

The crew was drilling for uranium on the site, using the Duralite 1000N drill. Last year, this same global award was given to the Major Mongolia team.

The Cameco Exploration division has a drill safety program in place called “Safety First,” and within the program, it acknowledges project teams and drilling contractors with a yearly award for programs with the lowest injury events.

The Safety First initiative uses both the project’s contractor and exploration crew’s incident/accident frequency and severity rates. Each global exploration project is evaluated, and the lowest rate is determined. “The purpose of this program,” says Cameco’s Kelly Hanke, “is to promote teamwork between exploration crews and contractor crews, realizing fewer incidents/accidents, and to reward both groups.”

“I am very proud of the success of our leaders on this project – especially Barry Zerbin, area manager for Saskatchewan, our field superintendent, Wolf Maass, and the entire crew on the project,” says Denis Despres, Major’s vice president  for North America.  “We have an ongoing commitment to working in partnership with our customers to make every drill site safe.” Also on the crew were foremen Greg Hung and Kevin Norberg, drillers Curtis Chegus, John Hastings, Don Jolly and Adam Senow, and helpers Devin Chegus, Regan Gaida, Brad Radawetz, Bryan Stevenson, Allan Dutchak and Michel Collette.

“It was a true partnership between Cameco Exploration and Major,” says Barry Zerbin, “from our top-notch crews on the jobsite, to everybody in the Winnipeg office who supplied the tools needed to make the job a success. This is a fine example of the integration of safety, production and environmental excellence.”