Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cameco Corporation's annual meeting of shareholders. It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Sean Quinn, Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary. Mr. Quinn, the floor is yours.
Thank you, Operator, and welcome to everyone attending today. We are pleased you have joined us for our shareholders' meeting. I am speaking from our office located in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, which is on Treaty 6 Territory, the traditional territory of Cree peoples and the homeland of the Métis. I would also like to acknowledge that we have mine, industrial facilities, and offices on Treaty areas in both Northern Saskatchewan and Ontario. I do so to reaffirm our commitment and responsibility to building meaningful relationships and to improving our own understanding of local Indigenous peoples and their cultures. Now, turning to the meeting, I will outline the agenda and various procedures and guidelines. There is time set aside following the formal business of the meeting for questions of a general nature that pertain to the business and affairs of Cameco.
Those persons attending and participating as registered shareholders or as duly appointed proxy holders are entitled to ask questions then. You are encouraged to put your questions in now, and we can address them at the appropriate time. In terms of the agenda, following her remarks, our Chair, Catherine Gignac, will call the meeting to order and address various preliminary matters. All the items of business to be voted on will be moved. We will then take questions from registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders on all the items of business. Questions can be submitted by using the messaging platform available on your screen. Registered shareholders who wish to vote at the meeting and cast a ballot online should have logged into the webcast by entering their 13-digit control number on their proxy form and the password Cameco2025, all in lowercase with no spaces.
Proxy holders, including beneficial owners who have appointed themselves as proxy holders, should have logged into the webcast by entering the 13-digit control number they received after they appointed themselves as proxy holder and registered with TSX Trust Company and the password again, Cameco2025, all in lowercase with no spaces. If you have logged on properly, the electronic ballot will be displayed. The online balloting is now open, and you are encouraged to complete your voting as soon as practical since voting will close within 30 seconds after the conclusion of the formal business of the meeting. Be sure to stay connected to the internet at all times in order to vote.
If you are a registered shareholder or a duly appointed proxy holder who logged on as a guest, you will not be able to vote at the meeting unless you exit the meeting and log back in using your 13-digit control number and the password. Once the formal items of business are moved, we will answer questions received through the online messaging platform related to the items of business. The legal name of the submitting shareholder or proxy holder will be read aloud before the question is addressed. Questions that are redundant or that have inappropriate language or are otherwise unduly disruptive to the orderly conduct of the meeting will not be addressed. Questions that do not directly relate to the meeting's items of business will not be addressed during the formal meeting but will be addressed in the question-and-answer session following the meeting.
Our meeting today does not include a senior executive presentation. Cameco recently hosted its first quarter conference call with the company's senior executives on Thursday, May 1st, 2025, where we discussed trends in the market, the execution of Cameco's strategy, and took questions. A recorded version is available on our website, cameco.com. If during the meeting we encounter any technical difficulties with the webcast, please remain logged on, and we will resume as soon as possible. Please note that this webcast may include forward-looking information that is based on assumptions, and actual results could differ materially. Please refer to our management proxy circular, annual information form, and MD&A, all of which are available on CDAR. For more information about the factors that could cause these different results and the assumptions we have made, I now turn the meeting over to the Chair of Cameco's board, Catherine Gignac.
Thank you, Sean, for outlining today's agenda, procedures, and guidelines, and good morning, everyone. I would like to add my welcome to all of you attending this morning and my fellow directors, and I would like to thank all shareholders who voted by proxy and for your continued support of Cameco. Throughout 2024, positive momentum for nuclear energy continued to build among governments, industries, and the general public. Today, we are seeing increased demand for nuclear energy around the world, which is good news for Cameco. The driver of the increased demand for nuclear power is the recognition of the critical role it can play in achieving energy security, national security, and climate security objectives. With more than 35 years of experience in the nuclear industry, Cameco has designed our strategy of full-cycle value capture to be resilient.
Cameco is recognized as a global company and is making a difference on a global scale. We have built a strong reputation as a proven and reliable supplier with a diversified production portfolio that gives us the flexibility to respond to market demand. Some of the highlights of Cameco's performance in 2024 included delivering another strong year of financial performance, continuing to increase our long-term contracting, deepening our commitment to environmental protection through various initiatives, and signing new collective agreements in Ontario and Saskatchewan. At McArthur River/Key Lake, we achieved a new annual production record with 20.3 million packaged pounds. This was a world record for production from any uranium mill. At Cigar Lake, the operation reached a production milestone of 150 million pounds in total since entering commercial production 10 years ago.
In addition, development work began on the ore body to extend the mine life to 2036 in conjunction with the addition of 73.4 million pounds of mineral reserves. Cigar Lake also received international attention from CNBC in early December, highlighting the global importance of the uranium being mined in northern Saskatchewan, and over in our fuel services division, Cameco had another strong year of production and delivered 12.1 million kgU under contract. Over the coming years, we are also undertaking capital projects to help ensure the reliability and sustainability of our existing operations and to replace aging infrastructure in order to maintain our current production levels, and while no decision has been made on changes to future production levels, this work is also expected to position us for future production flexibility.
And if our contract book supports it, we expect to be in great shape to take advantage of that flexibility, thanks in part to our financial discipline. Overall, our portfolio now includes about 220 million pounds of U3O8 in our uranium segment and about 85 million kgU as UF6 in our fuel services segment. The positive market conditions that we expect to benefit our core uranium and fuel services businesses are also presenting significant future growth opportunities for Westinghouse, which we own in a strategic partnership with Brookfield Renewable. In addition to its role providing key components for about 50% of the operating global nuclear reactor fleet, Westinghouse also designs, develops, and procures equipment for new AP1000 nuclear reactors with licensing agreements that allow Westinghouse to benefit from the construction of other reactor designs that incorporate AP1000 technology.
Once a new reactor begins commercial operation, further opportunities are added for both Westinghouse and Cameco through future reactor services and fuel supply contracts. With the growing opportunity for new nuclear reactor builds, we believe Westinghouse is well positioned to compete and win new business, which is expected to bring significant value back to Cameco. Today, we are optimistic about the opportunities for growth that lie ahead with the acceleration in demand for carbon-free, reliable, secure, and affordable baseload electricity. The positive momentum is being driven by global factors that we expect to persist for years to come. Geopolitical uncertainty, energy security, climate security, and national security concerns are highlighting the multiple benefits of nuclear energy. We believe the outlook for nuclear power and nuclear fuel fundamentals is more favorable than it has ever been, and we are optimistic about Cameco's role in meeting the world's growing demand for electricity.
But for us, what is just as important as the business we do at Cameco is how we do it. From corporate strategy, day-to-day operations, and its approach to executive compensation, Cameco continues to integrate sustainability principles and practices into its business processes and activities and remains committed to delivering its products responsibly. Along with our focus on sustaining a strong safety culture and prioritizing the health and safety of workers and people in the communities where Cameco operates, we continue to reinforce Cameco's support for and collaboration with Indigenous communities.
Some of the highlights of this work included continuing to work on our long-term net zero ambition by developing a Scope 3 emissions profile and recording improved environmental performance at all sites in 2024, continuing to build and sustain our Indigenous workforce by introducing a training program for skills development of selected northern employees at our mine sites, launching a pilot program to introduce northern residents to a career in the trades, and donating nearly CAD 3 million to support various community organizations. We are proud of our contributions and know these activities are not only good for business but the right thing to do. We have also put our support behind Net Zero Nuclear, an initiative between government, industry leaders, and civil society to triple global nuclear capacity to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, with more than 120 companies, 14 financial institutions, and 31 countries having signed the declaration.
As a strategic partner, we are excited to assist with deepening industry support for this important initiative, and by delivering our products and services responsibly and profitably, we know we can be a part of the solution to enhance national energy and climate security given 100% of our product is used to produce reliable, carbon-free baseload electricity. To get there, the board and I continue to have a high level of confidence in Tim Gitzel, Cameco's President and CEO, his senior management group, and Cameco's entire employee team in helping the company reach its objectives and vision of powering a secure energy future. The senior leadership team conducts itself with integrity and leads with a demonstrated commitment to safety, people, and the environment, and they have a wealth of experience and industry knowledge gained through long careers in the nuclear energy industry.
Finally, I want to thank my fellow board members for their dedication over the last year. We have a strong and engaged board that brings tremendous value to the table, and the board takes its responsibilities very seriously. On that note, today we are pleased to be welcoming two new nominees for election to Cameco's board of directors, Marie Inkster and Peter Kukielski. They bring strong skills and experience in several areas, including executive leadership, strategy, finance, accounting, and audit, operational excellence, as well as in mining, safety, and business growth and transformation. We welcome the expertise, experience, and value they will add to our team of engaged and committed board members. We will now turn to the formal part of the meeting. I am joined by Tim Gitzel, Cameco's President and CEO, and Sean Quinn, Cameco's Senior Vice President, Chief Legal Officer, and Corporate Secretary.
The meeting will now come to order. As Chair of the Board, I will act as Chair of the meeting. Sean Quinn will act as secretary of the meeting. Representatives of TSX Trust Company are attending and appointed as scrutineers for this meeting. The secretary is advised that we have a quorum for the meeting. The secretary has an affidavit attesting to the mailing of the notice of the meeting. I now declare this annual meeting to be regularly convened and properly constituted for the transaction of business. The first item of business on the agenda is to receive the corporation's 2024 consolidated financial statements and the auditor's report. The financial statements and the auditor's report have been distributed by mail to requesting shareholders and have otherwise been provided in accordance with notice and access requirements. They are also available on Cameco's website.
To make the best use of our time, I have asked the corporate secretary to move the matters which are called for in the notice of meeting. Voting on the applicable items of business to come before today's meeting is being conducted online by a single electronic ballot. Voting online has been open since the start of the meeting and will remain open for approximately 30 seconds following the conclusion of the question and answer session on the items of business. Once voting closes, the scrutineer will tabulate the results of the vote for each matter. All items of business in the Management Proxy Circular will now be moved. The first ballot item is the election of directors. Sean, could you please propose the nominees for election?
I move that each of the proposed nominees as listed in the management proxy circular accompanying the notice of meeting be nominated as directors of the corporation to hold office until the next annual meeting of the shareholders or until their successors are elected or appointed in accordance with the provisions of the Canada Business Corporations Act. The nominees are Daniel Camus, Tammy Cook-Searson, Catherine Gignac, Tim Gitzel, Marie Inkster, Kathryn Jackson, Don Kayne, Peter Kukielski, Dominique Minière, and Leontine van Leeuwen-Atkins. The next item of business on the agenda is the appointment of auditors and the authorization of the directors to fix their remuneration. I move that KPMG LLP be appointed as auditors of the corporation until the close of our next annual meeting of shareholders and the directors be authorized to fix their remuneration.
The next item of business is the consideration and approval of the non-binding advisory resolution accepting the corporation's approach to executive compensation. I move on an advisory basis and not to diminish the role and responsibilities of the board of directors for executive compensation that the shareholders accept the approach to executive compensation disclosed in Cameco's Management Proxy Circular delivered in advance of the 2025 annual meeting of shareholders. We will now take questions from registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders pertaining to the business of the meeting. Sean, please read any questions received related to the items of business. As a reminder, proper questions not related to the business of the meeting will be addressed in the question and answer session following the meeting. There are no questions to be addressed related to the business of the meeting. Discussion of the items of business is now closed.
There are 30 seconds remaining for you to complete your ballot, after which your ballot will be automatically submitted. Madam Chair, the polls are now closed. As there were no director nominations in accordance with the advance notice requirements of Cameco's bylaws and each director nominee has received a majority of votes cast in favor of their election, each of the director nominees are elected. Due to the number of proxy votes received prior to the meeting, I can advise that the motion for the appointment of auditors and the resolution on an advisory basis that the shareholders accept the corporation's approach to executive compensation have passed. Sean, could you please advise on the vote results?
Thank you, Catherine.
The preliminary vote report shows support for the advisory vote on executive compensation of at least 97% and support for the appointment of auditors of at least 90%, both on a prorated basis. Thank you, Sean. As there is no further business for the meeting, I declare that the meeting is terminated. We are pleased to have this time to answer your proper questions of a general nature pertaining to the business and affairs of Cameco. If you have not already done so, use the messaging platform available on your screen to submit a question. Sean, can you please review the protocol for the question and answer session? We will read questions that are submitted and consolidate questions of the same nature.
Cameco will not address any questions or statements that are, amongst other things, related to material non-public information of the company, irrelevant to the business and affairs of the company, or out of order or not otherwise suitable for the annual meeting. All as may be determined by the chair and her reasonable judgment. For additional information about the conduct of this question and answer session, please see the asking questions section on page 14 of the Management Proxy Circular.
Thank you, Sean. Could you take us through any proper questions that have been received?
Madam Chair, there are no questions to be addressed.
Thank you. As there are no more questions, I'd like to thank all of you for attending. I also would like to take this opportunity to thank all of Cameco's shareholders for your support.
Your ability to engage with our board and management team is important to us. Before we sign off, I've asked Sean Quinn to review some of the ways that you can get in touch with us.
Thank you, Catherine. Our website, Cameco.com, is an important and useful source of information. You can access our quarterly disclosures and join quarterly investor webcasts and conference calls by navigating to the invest section of our website. We maintain there an archive of all recent investor disclosures. You can also email questions to the corporate secretary or to our investor relations department directly at any time. Contact information for that is available on our website. You're also welcome to mail a confidential letter to the chair of the board or the chair of any board committee. Further details on that are set out on Cameco's website and are included in our management proxy circular.
This now concludes our event. Thank you for your continued support of Cameco.