This eviction had been looming for months. On Thursday, June 20, the French multinational Orano (ex-Areva) announced in a press release that the junta in power in Niger had decided to withdraw the company's license for future development of the Imouraren uranium mine in the northeast of the country, considered to be one of the world's largest deposits.

Since the early 2000s, Orano has invested over €1 billion in the project, a source at the multinational told Le Monde. After the permit was granted in 2009, work to bring the mine into production should have begun "by January 2011 at the latest," said the Nigerien Ministry of Mines, in a note published on June 11. The economic context soon led to the project's suspension.

Since the beginning of 2024, it has seemed more promising: On the wholesale market, the price of uranium, fuel for nuclear power plants, has returned to levels not seen since 2007. But Orano, in which the French state holds a 90% stake, is bearing the brunt of diplomatic tension between Paris and the putschists who have seized power in Niger. In July 2023, the junta overthrew the elected president Mohamed Bazoum, Paris's last ally in the Sahel, who for the time being remains detained with his wife.

The military regime expelled French soldiers and the French ambassador at the end of 2023. On March 18, it sent Orano a formal notice to start work on the Imouraren site within three months, failing which the permit would be withdrawn.

According to the ministerial note dated June 11, the Minister of Mines, Commissioner Colonel Ousmane Abarchi, visited Imouraren at the beginning of May. According to the document, he noted that "mining operations have not yet begun." "The infrastructure has been reopened since June 4," Orano said in its June 20 press release.

For the French multinational, this was supposed to be one of its most promising projects. According to estimates made at the end of 2023, with more than 34,000 tonnes of uranium, this deposit alone represented 16.5% of all Orano's proven reserves, i.e. exploitable under current economic and technical conditions.

In Niger since the 1970s, the multinational plans to challenge the decision before the competent legal authorities. According to sources close to the case, the group's entire activity in the country appears to be in serious jeopardy, including its operating mine at Arlit. With 1,130 tonnes extracted in 2023, this site represents 16% of Orano's total production – which is also carried out in two other countries, Canada and Kazakhstan.

You have 52.51% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.