adminIAMEY. – The French nuclear group Areva has since January 1 stopped uranium production on two of its mining sites in northern Niger as a result of failure to reach agreement with the Nigerian government, a trade union source in Niamey said on Friday. For the past 40 years, the Areva group has been mining uranium deposits in Arlit in the extreme north of Niger through its two subsidiaries, SOMAIR and COMINAK.
The agreement between the two parties signed several decades ago came to an end on December 31, 2013.
The two parties have been in discussion for over a month to sign a new 10-year agreement. However, Niamey has insisted that the new agreement be an “improvement” of the previous one.
Sources close to the discussions said Areva had rejected any proposed increase of taxation. The French group says Nigerian mines are no longer profitable, in addition to the fall in world prices of uranium. – Xinhua.
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