Roy Lloyd, a Saskatchewan government employee who helped establish Cameco — now the largest uranium producer in the world — has died of cancer. He was 64.
In the 1970s, Saskatchewan was a bit player in the uranium business. It was then that Lloyd, who had risen through the ranks of the province’s Department of Finance, urged the Saskatchewan government to create Saskatchewan Mining and Development Corp. (SMDC) as a government-owned uranium explorer. SMDC was launched in 1979 with Lloyd as its first president.
SMDC performed early exploration in places like Key Lake, Cigar Lake, Michael Lake, Rabbit Lake, and Collins Bay.
Key Lake was probably SMDC’s biggest success. It placed Canada at the forefront of uranium producers, with the country accounting for roughly one-third of global output by the mid-1980s.
In 1988, Lloyd helped create Cameco by merging SMDC with Eldorado Nuclear, a federal Crown corporation. Lloyd remained with the new company as vice-chairman, but left in 1989, just before it went public.
Lloyd was born in 1941, in Fillmore, Sask. His high school acumen won him a university scholarship and he graduated from the University of Saskatchewan in 1963 with a degree in economics. That same year, he married his girlfriend, Rose Dreher.
Upon graduation, Lloyd took a job with Saskatchewan’s Department of Finance, where he eventually became the assistant deputy minister of finance.
After Cameco went public in 1989, Lloyd joined an accounting firm now known as KPMG. During his time at KPMG he briefly served as president of Claude Resources, helping lead the company out of bankruptcy. Lloyd served as head of KPMG’s Saskatchewan consulting division until he retired in 1998.
In “retirement,” Lloyd volunteered on the boards of the Canada West Foundation, St. Thomas More College, the Catholic Health Corp., the Catholic Family Services Foundation and St. Paul’s Hospital Foundation. Lloyd also served on the board of junior explorer, Golden Band Resources, which says it will name its Bingo gold deposit the Roy Lloyd mine.
Lloyd is survived by Rose, daughters Karen and Leanne, and five grandchildren.
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