The \u200bUS government has approved up to $414 million in financing for a uranium project in Niger, according to \u200cthe project’s developer, in what sources described as a win for Washington two years after the West African nation expelled all US forces.<\/p>\n
The US Development Finance Corp approved the debt facility for Canadian miner Global Atomic’s Dasa project, which the company describes as the highest-grade uranium \u200bdeposit in Africa, according to a company statement on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The investment could bolster US access to a strategic \u200buranium supply at a time when Niger, the world’s seventh-largest uranium producer, is\u00a0locked in a \u2060dispute\u00a0with French state-backed miner Orano, which long dominated the country’s uranium sector.<\/p>\n
The financing is being viewed by people \u200bfamiliar with the matter as a diplomatic and commercial breakthrough for Washington, whose relations with Niger deteriorated after the military government \u200bthat seized power in a 2023 coup ordered US forces to leave in 2024. Niamey’s new leaders have relied on Russian paramilitaries for security instead of the West.<\/p>\n
Sources briefed on the effort said the US ambassador had urged Washington to rebuild ties with Niamey and back \u200bthe project after the Trump administration took office with a renewed emphasis on deal-making in Africa.<\/p>\n
The project was seen \u200bas an opportunity to secure access to a strategic energy resource that might otherwise fall into the orbit of rival powers, they said.<\/p>\n
One \u200csource \u2060familiar with discussions involving Global Atomic and the DFC said a breakthrough came this summer when Chief Executive Stephen Roman travelled to Washington to resolve remaining issues holding up approval.<\/p>\n
The project could also provide a rare bright spot in US-Canada relations, which have come under strain amid\u00a0a trade war between the neighbors.<\/p>\n
Niger’s government did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
SECURITY <\/strong>\u200b<\/strong>AND LOGISTICAL CHALLENGES<\/strong><\/p>\n Despite the financing \u200bcommitment, the project faces \u2060significant security and political risks.<\/p>\n Jihadist attacks have repeatedly targeted Niger’s government and security forces over the past year. Last month, mutinous soldiers\u00a0attacked\u00a0a key military airbase and the presidency.<\/p>\n Global Atomic \u200bhas been exploring alternative routes to export uranium from the landlocked country as transport corridors \u200bto the coast \u2060have become increasingly risky, a source briefed on discussions said.<\/p>\n One idea has been to invest in a route north through Algeria and across the Sahara Desert.<\/p>\n Algeria sent\u00a0aircraft to Niger this summer\u00a0to help the government respond to the latest coup attempt, underscoring \u2060improving ties \u200bbetween the neighbouring countries.<\/p>\n Uranium was added to the US critical minerals list \u200blast year, prompting renewed interest in Niger’s reserves.<\/p>\n Those reserves include uranium stockpiles caught up in a dispute between Niger’s government and Orano, which has launched \u200binternational arbitration proceedings after losing control of key mining assets in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The \u200bUS government has approved up to $414 million in financing for a uranium project in Niger, according to \u200cthe project’s developer, in what sources described as a win for Washington two years after the West African nation expelled all US forces. The US Development Finance Corp approved the debt facility for Canadian miner Global […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":12661,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":6,"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","show_comment_section":"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":"Reuters","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":[2362,3028,27],"tags":[1373,383,2832,5471,1842],"class_list":["post-22038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-mining","category-west-africa","tag-niamey","tag-niger","tag-orano","tag-us-development-finance-corp","tag-washington"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038","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\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22038"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22039,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22038\/revisions\/22039"}],"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=22038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}