#Niger holds the world's seventh-largest #Uranium deposits. In 2019 only, about 2,982 tonnes of uranium was produced by the two operating mines of the country.

The current #Uranium production occurs from the open-pit operations of #SOMAÏR (Société des Mines de l’Aïr), near the town of Arlit, about 1,100 km north of the capital Niamey.

#SOMAÏR is 63.4 per cent owned by 🇫🇷 #French company Orano and 36.66 per cent owned by Sopamin (Société du Patrimoine des Mines du Niger), a Niger state-owned company.

- WION

🇫🇷🇳🇪 French nuclear giant slips into the red following Niger-French breakup

French nuclear giant Orano ended the first half of the year with a loss of €133 million, weighed down by difficulties in its mining activities in Niger due to a "highly degraded" political context since a military regime came to power a year ago.

The coup in Niger on 26 July last year led to a halt in imports of critical materials necessary for uranium exploitation in Orano's Somaïr mine, such as soda ash, carbonate, nitrates and sulphur.

And although uranium extraction continued in the first quarter of 2024 "after several months of early maintenance," Somaïr’s sales were unable to resume "due to a lack of logistics solutions approved by the Niger authorities".

In late June, Niger decided to withdraw the licence of Imouraren SA, a company jointly operated by Orano, Niger Mining and Korea Electric Power, and which ran the Somaïr mine.

The situation could eventually lead to "insolvency in the short to medium term, in the coming months", Claverie said.

#France #Niger

@africaintel