Hidden Bay Airport

Obsolescence and operational consolidation. The Hidden Bay airstrip was a basic, likely unpaved strip built for early exploration. It was made redundant by the construction and subsequent upgrades of the nearby Collins Bay Airport (CYKC), which features a 5,500-foot paved runway capable of handling larger aircraft required for the full-scale mining operation. It was more economical and safer to consolidate all air services at the single, better-equipped airport.

The site is completely abandoned and decommissioned. Satellite imagery of the coordinates shows a faint, straight scar in the boreal forest where the runway once was. The area is heavily overgrown with shrubs and trees, rendering it unusable for any aviation purposes. The land is part of the larger Rabbit Lake Operation site, owned by Cameco, which was placed into a state of safe care and maintenance in 2016 due to low uranium prices.

Hidden Bay Airport was a private airstrip crucial to the initial exploration and development of the Rabbit Lake uranium mine, one of the longest-running uranium production facilities in the world. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, this airstrip served as the primary lifeline for the remote exploration camp. It handled small STOL (Short Take-Off and Landing) bush planes, such as the de Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver and DHC-6 Twin Otter, which transported geologists, surveyors, drilling crews, core samples, and essential supplies to and from the site before any permanent roads or larger infrastructure existed.

There are no plans or prospects for reopening the Hidden Bay Airport. It is functionally non-existent and has been fully reclaimed by nature. Any potential restart of the Rabbit Lake mining operations would be serviced by the modern and fully maintained Collins Bay Airport (CYKC), which remains operational to support the site's care and maintenance activities.