Trucks carry rocks containing uranium 23 February 2005 at Arlit opencast mine in the Air desert, one of the world's most impoverished regions. At the Arlit uranium mine, expolited by Areva of France, the world's largest nuclear engineering group, deep in the Sahara desert in Niger, the uranium ore is so close to the surface that workers go just sixty meters down to the bottom of the open pit mine to retrieve it. The Areva Mining Business Unit specializes in exploration, mining and processing of uranium ore, a strategically important raw material for nuclear fuel. Areva is the world's second largest natural uranium producer. Some 7,000 tons of uranium, about 20% of world production, are extracted each year from mines operated by the group and located mainly in Canada and Niger. AFP PHOTO PIERRE VERDY
PIERRE VERDY / AFP ( AFP / PIERRE VERDY)

Coup in Niger leads to misleading claims about uranium exports to the West

This article is more than one year old.
Published on August 23, 2023 at 14:08
6 min read
By SUY Kahofi, Gaëlle GEOFFROY, AFP Ivory Coast, AFP Nigeria
Translation and adaptation Fikayo OWOEYE

Backers of Niger's coup in July 2023 quickly stepped into the fray on social media and used the upheaval to take potshots at Western powerhouses. Some claimed the new regime leaders and their counterparts in Burkina Faso halted uranium exports to former colonial master France, as well as the United States. French posts also accused the European state of extracting the heavy metal in Niger for free. However, the claims are either misleading or baseless. Mining of uranium for export markets, including France, continue in Niger, according to French company Orano. Financial statements also show annual benefits flowing to Niger’s government in the form of taxes and dividends. The same is not true for Burkina Faso, where uranium mining does not exist.

"Now we are talking... Finally its happening (sic),” reads a Facebook post published on August 2, 2023, which has since gathered more than 2,600 shares.

It features a TikTok video captioned "Niger ... stop all exporting of uranium and gold to France".

A screenshot showing the false video, taken on August 19, 2023

Soldiers led by former presidential guard commander General Abdourahamane Tiani ousted Mohamed Bazoum, the democratically-elected Nigerien leader, on July 26, 2023 (archived here).

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), chaired by Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, gave the new military chiefs a seven-day ultimatum to reinstate Bazoum or risk reprisal. After the 6 August deadline passed, leaders of ECOWAS ordered the activation of a "standby force" for possible use in Niger (archived here ).

At their last meeting in Ghana on August 18, 2023, ECOWAS confirmed it had reached an agreement (archived here) on a "D-day" for a possible military intervention to restore civil rule if diplomatic efforts failed.

France has also given its backing, saying it will support efforts to overturn Niger’s coup (archived here).

Uranium claims

The clip starts with a protester saying that Nigeriens must be allowed to do what they want and that "outsiders must not impose people upon us to manage us". Another protester said the military bases of France, US, Canada and Italy in Niger were not needed.

Other people in the footage urge coup leaders to stand up to foreign threats.

The narrator in the video accuses French President Emmanuel Macron of seeking only to safeguard French interests in Niger. Another interviewee, Swazi-born South African youth activist Mcebo Dlamini, said that terminating exports including uranium to France would have no impact on Niger as the country was not benefitting from the mines.

Similar claims were made here on Facebook and TikTok.

Other posts like this Facebook one claimed that Burkina Faso’s military leader Ibrahim Traore had banned the export of uranium to France and the US.

A screenshot showing the false post, taken August 22, 2023

Neighboring Burkina Faso experienced its second coup last year (archived here) when 34-year-old Traore declared himself leader in September 2022. Traore has continued to show solidarity (archived here) with Niger’s coup generals and together with Mali, has deployed warplanes to defend against any ECOWAS response (archived here).

But the claims are misleading or outright false.

Uranium in Niger

Niger is the world’s seventh-biggest producer of uranium (archived here) mined near the towns of Arlit and Akokan, 900 kilometres northeast of the capital Niamey.

The country’s first commercial uranium mining began in 1971, according to the World Nuclear Association (archived here). The radioactive metal is the most widely used component for nuclear energy.

French nuclear fuel firm Orano (formerly Areva) said its uranium operations in Niger had not been disrupted by the crisis.

“Activities and operations are continuing at the Arlit and Akokan sites and at the headquarters in Niamey,” the company said in an email response to AFP Fact Check, adding that a partnership agreement signed with the government on May 4, 2023 was still in place (archived here).

Meanwhile, no official announcement about halting uranium mining in Niger has been made by the country’s new regime.

Annual revenues for Niger

The second claim that exploration has been beneficial only to the French government is untrue.

A page from the Nigerien presidency’s website -- which is no longer active but was archived at the end of July 2023, shows that from 2016 to 2020 -- the government received an average revenue from the two mines amounting to 170 billion Franc CFA ($282 million).

"This is without counting the dividends from the sale of the share taken by the Société de Patrimoine des Mines du Niger (SOPAMIN) which is a function of its participation in the shares of these two mining companies and many others," indicates the text, without specifying the amounts.

A screenshot showing revenue to Niger from Uranium exploration as show by the Nigerien presidency website

An Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative report on Niger produced in 2020 by the multi-party initiative and US firm BDO ( archive here) and published in French in December 2022 ( archived link ) gives further indications on uranium-linked payments received by the Nigerien state.

Page 28 shows that Orano subsidiaries Somaïr and Cominak together paid the government 20 billion CFA ($300 million). Orano Mining paid over 55 million CFA.

AFP debunked this part of the claim in French here.

In 2022, the French group paid the government of Niger close to 10 billion CFA Francs, including approximately 1.5 billion CFA francs in taxes and a little more than 4 billion CFA francs in royalties, according to the year’s financial statements (archived here)

A screenshot showing the CSR to governments by Orano, taken on August 19, 2023

No uranium in Burkina Faso

The claim that Burkina Faso has banned the export of uranium to France and the US is also false.

The World Nuclear Association has not listed Burkina Faso as one of the countries where uranium is mined (archived here).

A screenshot showing countries with uranium deposits by the World Nuclear Association

A 2020 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) notes that no uranium has been produced in Burkina Faso, and there are no plans to develop nuclear-generating capacity (archived here).

AFP has verified several viral claims in the context of the crisis in Niger, including here and here.