The Cigar Lake deposit, in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, 660 km (410 mi) north of Saskatoon, contains approximately 350 million pounds (160 million kilograms) of triuranium octoxide (U₃O₈) reserves, with ore grades of about 20%. It is the second largest and richest uranium orebody in the world. A project was recently undertaken at Cigar Lake to develop an innovative nonentry method for mining and handling high-grade uranium ore. The process commenced at the proof-of-concept stage and ended with a full-scale industrial test. As a result, the jet-boring mining method will be used to extract the ore for the future Cigar Lake operation. The Cigar Lake project is now in the construction phase and could be operational in 2007.