Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Cameco Corporation 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. Welcome to everyone attending today. We are pleased that you have joined us for our shareholders meeting being conducted online and in person from Cameco's head office in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. I acknowledge that we are speaking from our corporate office, which is on Treaty 6 T erritory, the traditional territory of Cree peoples and the homeland of the Métis. Before the start of today's meeting, I will outline the agenda and various procedures and guidelines. Following his remarks, our chair, Ian Bruce, 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 take questions from registered shareholders and duly appointed proxy holders on all the items of business. For those attending online, questions can be submitted by using the messaging platform available on your screen.
Registered shareholders and proxy holders who wish to vote at the meeting and cast a ballot in person may do so. Ballots were provided when you signed in at registration outside this room. Those registered shareholders and proxy holders 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, cameco2023, all in lowercase with no spaces. Proxy holders, including beneficial owners who appointed themselves as proxy holders, should have logged into the webcast by entering this 13-digit control number they received after they appointed themselves as proxy holder and registered with TSX Trust Company. Again, the password, cameco2023, all in lowercase with no spaces. If you are logged on properly, the electronic ballot will be displayed.
The online balloting is already 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 question and answer session. Be sure to stay connected to the internet at all times to vote when the balloting begins. 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 noted above. Once the formal items of business are moved, we'll take questions received from the floor and through the online messaging platform. 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. General shareholder questions that do not directly relate to the meeting's items of business will not be addressed during the meeting, but will be noted and followed up on after the meeting. Our meeting today does not include a senior executive presentation. Cameco hosted its first quarter conference call with the company's senior executives just recently on Friday, April 28, 2023, where we discussed trends in the market, execution of Cameco's strategy, and took questions. A recorded version is available on our website. If, during the meeting, we encounter any technical difficulties with the webcast, please remain logged on and we will resume as soon as possible.
Finally, please note that this webcast may include forward-looking information that is based on a number of 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 SEDAR 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, Ian Bruce.
Thank you, Sean, for outlining today's agenda, procedures, guidelines, and good morning, everyone. I'd like to add my welcome to all of you attending this morning, and my fellow directors and I would also like to thank all shareholders who voted by proxy and for your continued support of Cameco. Looking back on 2022, it was a strong, busy and transformative year for Cameco. Some of the highlights for the company included maintaining a strong balance sheet throughout the year, achieving significant progress implementing digital and automation technologies that were undertaken during the shutdowns, advancing our ESG initiatives, and resuming production at our tier one operation, McArthur River Mine, and Key Lake Mill. Fuel services division in Ontario delivered record production. Cameco was able to meet its full licensed production at the Cigar Lake mine and acquired an increased ownership interest in this flagship operation.
On the marketing side, Cameco signed a record number of contracts, adding 80 million pounds to our uranium contract portfolio. Finally, the biggest piece of good news for us in 2022 was the announcement last October of purchase of 49% of Westinghouse Electric Company, one of the world's largest nuclear services businesses, which we see creating a powerful platform for strategic growth across the nuclear sector. We expect this will allow Cameco to extend its reach in the nuclear fuel cycle at a time when there is tremendous growth on the horizon for the nuclear industry coming from across the globe. Last year, the Russian invasion of Ukraine deepened the energy crisis, impacting many regions of the world and highlighted the need for secure and affordable and continuously available energy, something nuclear energy can provide.
It also created security of supply concerns for many utilities whose nuclear fuel supply chains rely heavily on Russian reactor fuels, particularly enrichment. In the current environment, origin of supply matters. We believe this creates a significant opportunity for Cameco to grow, as well as help new and existing customers de-risk their fuel supply needs. To that end, Cameco recently signed a major multi-year supply contract with Energoatom to help Ukraine meet its full nuclear fuel needs through to 2035. That was a great and proud day for Cameco. In addition to the markets we have always served, we see a lot of additional opportunity in these new markets where we have been unable to compete in the past.
At the same time, the other big driver for nuclear power is the focus on decarbonization and electrification, the accountability for countries and companies to achieve and meet the net zero targets they have set. We believe that anyone who looks seriously at the challenges of of achieving these goals understand that there is no solution without nuclear. Things are looking brighter than they have in some time. Cameco is focused on capitalizing on the opportunities that are present now and into the future. Along with a steadfast focus on safety, Cameco continues to innovate and find ways to improve how it does business. We expect the investments we have recently made and will continue to make in digital and automation technologies will allow us to operate our assets with more flexibility. Just as important, Cameco continues to execute on its commitment to delivering its products responsibly.
From corporate strategy and day-to-day operations to its approach to executive compensation, Cameco continued to integrate ESG principles and practices into its business processes and activities throughout 2022. Whether it was crafting our lower carbon transition plan, expanding training and digital learning with our indigenous partner communities in northern Saskatchewan, continuing to build a more inclusive workplace culture or supporting mental health with our Step-Up event, we know these activities are not only good for business but also the right thing to be doing. Closing this morning with the renewed recognition of the role nuclear power must play, we are very optimistic about Cameco's role in providing energy security and supporting the transition to a net zero economy. The board and I continue to have a high level of confidence in Tim Gitzel, Cameco's CEO, his senior management group, and Cameco's entire employee team.
They conduct themselves with integrity, lead with a strong emphasis on safety, people, and the environment, have a wealth of experience and industry knowledge gained through long careers in the nuclear energy business. Two recent changes in the executive team will also provide additional bench strength for the C-suite as the company focuses on achieving its strategic goals. Grant Isaac was appointed to Executive Vice President and retains the Chief Financial Officer function. Grant was previously Senior Vice President and CFO. Heidi Shockey, previously Vice President and Controller, was appointed as Senior Vice President and Deputy CFO. We'd also like to extend the board's thanks to management for their dedication and leadership during a decade-long downturn in the industry.
Now, as we transition into a positive turnaround for nuclear, I'm confident that we have the right team in place to ensure that Cameco reaches its vision of making a material contribution to energizing a cleaner world. Finally, I would like to thank my fellow board members for their dedication over this last year. We have a strong and engaged board with a good mix of skills, experience, diversity, and other characteristics that bring tremendous value to the table, and the board takes its stakeholders' responsibilities very seriously. A number of unscheduled board and committee meetings were added over the months-long due diligence process related to the Westinghouse transaction, and a special thanks to the management team that dedicated their summer to that process. We will now turn to the formal part of the meeting.
I'm attending the meeting in Saskatoon, and I'm 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, and Jennifer Villareal of TSX Trust Company has been appointed as scrutineer for this meeting. The Secretary has advised that we have a quorum for this meeting. The Secretary has an affidavit attesting to the mailing of the notice of meeting. I now declare the 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 2022 consolidated financial statement and the auditor's report.
The financial statements and the auditor's report have been distributed by mail to requesting shareholders and are also available on Cameco's website. To make the best use of our time, I've 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, and anyone voting in person was presented with ballots on the items of business before the meeting at registration outside this room. For those of you voting in person, if you did not submit your ballots to the scrutineer at this time, please do so now.
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 item of business is the election of directors. Sean, could you please propose the nominees for this 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 Ian Bruce, Daniel Camus, Don Deranger, Catherine Gignac, Tim Gitzel, Jim Gowans, Kathryn Jackson, Don Kayne, and Leontine van Leeuwen-Atkins.
The next item of business on the agenda is the appointment of the auditors.
I move that KPMG LLP be appointed as auditors of the corporation until the close of our next annual meeting of shareholders.
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 2023 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, would you please read any comments or questions to be addressed?
There are no questions to be addressed. Discussion of the items of business is now closed.
As there were no director nominations in accordance with advanced notice requirements of Cameco's bylaws. 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, I can advise that the motion for appointment of auditors and the resolution on an advisory basis that the shareholders accept the corporation's approach to executive compensation passed. Sean, could you please advise on the vote results?
Thank you, Ian. The preliminary vote report shows support for the advisory vote on executive compensation of at least 88%, and support for the appointment of auditors of at least 89%.
Thank you, Sean. As there is no further business for the meeting, I declare the meeting is terminated. I'd like to thank all of you for attending. I would also 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 have asked Sean to review some of the ways you can get in touch with us.
Thank you, Ian. 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 past 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.