MONTREAL — A Canadian company that has acquired a massive amount of concentrated natural uranium from Iraq says the U.S military was behind the secrecy surrounding the transaction.

Saskatoon-based Cameco Corp. purchased the reported 550 tonnes of “yellowcake”, the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment, in a deal reported to be in the tens of millions of dollars.

Cameco spokesman Lyle Krahn says the hush-hush nature of the transaction was at the request of the U.S. military, who supervised the transport of the raw material out of the volatile region.

Mr. Krahn confirmed the yellowcake uranium arrived in Montreal on Saturday by ship and is scheduled to be transported by truck to the company's facilities in Ontario.

The stockpile has been described as the last major remnant of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's nuclear program.

Yellowcake uranium poses no severe risk if stored and sealed properly.