One way to keep workers safe when working around uranium is to keep them from handling the material. At Cigar Lake, Cameco uses a jet-boring process to keep the ore in containment. Courtesy of Cameco

Demand for uranium and rare earth minerals is growing as the world slowly moves away from fossil-fuel dependence and towards clean, renewable electricity generation. That is good news for Canada, which, according to the World Nuclear Association is the world’s fourth-largest total uranium producer and third-largest producer via mines (as opposed to in-situ leaching), and home to a significant amount of rare earth reserves and resources.