The Nigerien military junta announced on Thursday, June 20, 2024, that it had cancelled the operating license of French nuclear fuel producer Orano at the Imouraren uranium mine. Sitting on 200,000 tons of uranium deposits, Imouraren is one of the world’s largest uranium mines. Niger is the seventh-largest producer of uranium and the second-largest exporter of uranium after Kazakhstan to the EU, which imports over a quarter of its uranium from Niger for nuclear energy. Orano has been operating in Niger since 1971 and is presently down to one uranium mine in the country (i.e., Somaïr mine) after closing Cominak in 2021 and after losing Imouraren yesterday. Orano was supposed to begin mining at Imouraren in 2015 but delayed operations because of the collapse in the price of uranium due to the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster in Japan in 2011. Although Orano had recently begun preparations for future work at the mine and announced on Thursday that “current market conditions, with a favorable increase in the price of uranium, make it possible to once again consider putting Imouraren into operation,” as reported by AP, the Nigerien junta decided it was “too little, too late,” writing in a letter to Orano dated June 20 that the company’s exploitation plan “did not meet [its] expectations.” On March 19, the Nigerien mining ministry had informed Orano that if it did not start exploration on Imouraren mine by June 19 that its license would be revoked. As reported by Fratmat, in response to its revoked license, Orano stated that it is “willing to keep open all channels of communication with the authorities of Niger on this subject, while reserving the right to contest the decision to withdraw the operating permit before the competent judicial authorities, national or international.” Since the Nigerien junta took the reins of power last July, it has distanced itself from its former colonizer France and pivoted east toward Russia, China, and Iran for security, economic, and technological cooperation.
