The incident adds to the firm's mounting challenges, including swinging to a loss, growing debt, unplanned equipment outages and Moody’s Investors Service recent cut of the company's credit rating.
The state-owned entity says it will preserve its leading position as extractor of natural uranium, by developing existing mines, building new ones and introducing technologies to lower the costs of uranium extraction.
The Vancouver-based miner aims to produce 280,000 to 300,000 tonnes of the red metal a year, but commercial levels won't be reached until state power utility Zesco finish connecting the mine to the power grid.