Niger\u2019s government said Thursday it would nationalize the Soma\u00efr uranium venture operated by French company Orano and accused it of taking a disproportionate share of the uranium produced at the site.<\/p>\n
The announcement comes as military authorities in the West African country tighten their grip on foreign companies and civil society. Tensions have simmered for months between Niger\u2019s military government and the French company, and relations between Niamey and Paris have deteriorated.<\/p>\n
\u201cFaced with the irresponsible, illegal, and unfair behavior by Orano, a company owned by the French state \u2014 a state openly hostile toward Niger since July 26, 2023 … the government of Niger has decided, in full sovereignty, to nationalize Soma\u00efr,\u201d the authorities said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The authorities allege that Orano took a disproportionate share of the uranium produced at Soma\u00efr. They added that the company has also been accused of other \u201cirresponsible actions\u201d at the site, without elaborating.<\/p>\n
Orano did not immediately reply to The Associated Press’ request for a comment.<\/p>\n
Soma\u00efr is a joint venture between Orano and Niger\u2019s state-owned Sopamin, which operates the only active uranium mine in the country. But last year, authorities took operational control of Soma\u00efr. They also withdrew Orano’s operating permit for the Imouraren uranium mine, with reserves estimated at 200,000 tons.<\/p>\n
Orano is involved in several arbitration processes with Niger. Last month it sued the Nigerien authorities after the disappearance of its director and the raiding of its local offices.<\/p>\n
Orano has been operating in Niger, the world\u2019s seventh biggest supplier of uranium, for over 50 years and holds majority shares in three main uranium mines in Niger.<\/p>\n
Nigerien military authorities seized power in 2023 with a pledge to cut ties with the West and review mining concessions. Before that, the country was the West\u2019s major economic and security partner in the Sahel, the vast region south of the Sahara Desert that has been a hot spot for violent extremism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Niger\u2019s government said Thursday it would nationalize the Soma\u00efr uranium venture operated by French company Orano and accused it of taking a disproportionate share of the uranium produced at the site. The announcement comes as military authorities in the West African country tighten their grip on foreign companies and civil society. Tensions have simmered for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":5,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"AP","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,3028,33,27],"tags":[383,2832,4152,2691],"class_list":["post-16709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mining","category-politics","category-west-africa","tag-niger","tag-orano","tag-somair-uranium-venture","tag-uranium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}