The Globe and Mail reports in its Monday, July 6, edition that Cameco's Cigar Lake mine is located in the rugged boreal forest 660 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe reports that workers never come into direct contact with uranium, given its radioactivity. Instead, they use a special machine -- called the jet boring system -- to extract it. Cameco said the average employee gets exposed to a very small amount of radiation per year -- less than most CT scans. The hours are long, but so is the time off. Employees fly in to the site, with most working two weeks straight. They then fly back home and stay there for another two weeks before doing it all over again. Once the miners extract the slurry, it goes to a nearby mill to become a uranium concentrate known as "yellowcake." Cameco then ships it off to buyers in Ontario, the United States, Europe and Asia. It is used for nuclear power. "I like to refer to Cigar Lake as a boutique mine," said Kirk Lamont, the mine's general manager. "It's a small mine, but very high grade, very specialized."