Niger junta pulls plug on French uranium giant Orano amid Russian ties
The ruling military junta in Niger has revoked the license of the French nuclear fuel producer Orano at one of the world's largest uranium mines, company authorities have announced. The junta is cooperating with Russia.
11:18 AM EDT, June 22, 2024
"Orano fears that this decision to withdraw the mining permit for the deposit will have a negative impact on the economic, social and societal development of the region," the company said in a press statement on Thursday.
According to informants from the daily "Le Monde," the French company, which has been present in Niger for 50 years, invested over $1 billion in this project.
The junta in Niger has not yet commented on the French company's statement. However, it previously announced that it would review the country's mining concessions, and the Ministry of Mines warned that Orano's license would be revoked if work at the mine did not begin by June 19.
Problems after Fukushima
Extraction at the Imouraren facility was supposed to begin in 2015, but the work was halted after global uranium prices collapsed following the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, in 2011. However, this year, the cost of uranium has returned to levels not seen since 2007.
Niger is the seventh-largest producer of uranium in the world and possesses some of the highest-quality ores.
In July 2023, the junta overthrew the elected President, Mohamed Bazoum, the last ally of Paris in the Sahel region. Currently, Bazoum and his wife are under house arrest. In mid-June, a state court in Niamey stripped him of his immunity, paving the way for further repression by the military authorities.
Since taking over, the junta has consistently reduced ties with Paris. After expelling the French ambassador from the country in December of last year, it ordered the withdrawal of French troops, who had been fighting Islamist terrorists in the region. Since that time, the junta has been tightening ties with Russia.
