Niger has terminated a license to extract and operate uranium granted to the French state nuclear energy company Orano. A company statement said yesterday, Friday, that the military government in Niger had terminated the license to operate the Imorarin uranium mine in the north of the country, as of Thursday.
Imurarin is considered one of the most important uranium deposits in the world, with a reserve of about 200 thousand tons. Urano suspended its operations when the uranium market collapsed after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011.
In 2015, the French company planned to operate the reserve, without starting production, but the military government that came to power in July 2023 warned that the company’s operating license would be withdrawn if mining operations in the field in question did not begin within 3 months, starting in March. Last March.
Although the French company began field preparations to start production on June 4, in response to the request of the Niger government, the Ministry of Mining said in a letter sent to the company that “developments were not up to expectations.”
It is saddening.
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