Cameco Says Chairman Zaleschuk to Step Down at Annual Meeting

Cameco Corp. (CCO), the world’s third- largest uranium producer, said Chairman Victor Zaleschuk will step down at the company’s next annual meeting.

A. Neil McMillan, a member of the Canadian company’s board of directors since 2002, will replace Zaleschuk, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan-based Cameco said today in a statement. Zaleschuk will continue to be a director, if re-elected at the May 14 meeting, the company said.

“It’s time for me to step down as chair to assure healthy renewal of board leadership,” Zaleschuk, who served as chairman for a decade, said in the statement.

The change comes as the uranium industry grapples with depressed prices for the nuclear reactor fuel component following meltdown of three reactors in Japan after the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami. The move also comes as Cameco prepares to begin output from its Cigar Lake uranium mine in Saskatchewan, a projected delayed by a series of underground floods beginning in 2006.

Cameco fell 0.3 percent to C$21.49 at 11:43 a.m. in Toronto. The shares have risen 9.7 percent this year.

Kazatomprom, Kazakhstan’s state-owned producer, and Paris- based Areva SA (AREVA) are the biggest uranium miners as of 2011, the most recent data available from the World Nuclear Association.

To contact the reporter on this story: Christopher Donville in Vancouver at cjdonville@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Simon Casey at scasey4@bloomberg.net