Following the military intervention in Niger, the price of Uranium, the country’s biggest resource, recorded an increase. It rose slightly from a spot price of $56.15 to $56.25 per pound after the military coup. However, according to the Twitter account of MintPressNews and some other social media news platforms, the new administration in Niger has decided to raise the price of uranium exports from 0.80 euros per kg to 200 euros per kg. There is no official response from the Niger administration to confirm this but if this news is true it would have serious implications for Niger’s economy, international relations, and the global uranium market as well as Niger’s former colonial master, France.

Since the 1970s, France, Niger’s former colonial master, has been mining uranium in the African country as the uranium helps to power the massive French civil nuclear industry. Approximately three-fourths of Niger’s uranium is exported to France, and the country’s former colonial power remains the country’s primary mining investor through the French state-owned mining corporation Orano. Other mining companies have joined Niger in the last two decades, ranging from China to Canada, but France remains the largest mining investor. According to the World Nuclear Association, investing in mines abroad is a tactic used by states to avoid paying market pricing for minerals.

Since France has been the main buyer of uranium in Niger, it has been exerting a dominant influence on the price of this resource extracted from the country. Prior to the alleged recent revision, France had established a price of €0.80 per kilogramme, which did not reflect the true worldwide market worth of uranium. To put this in context, uranium from Canada sells for around €200/kg. And so the partnership between Niger and France has been observed as unequal.

Mahaman Laouan Gaya, a former Nigerien energy minister and, until 2020, the secretary general of the Organization of African Petroleum Producers (APPO), said that “Everyone in Niger feels this partnership is very unequal,” He went further to cite 2010 statistics that showed the disparity between the market value of Nigerien uranium and what France paid for the mineral. Niger, he wrote, sold uranium to France for €3.5 billion, but received just €459 million in exchange.

This is just one example of the unequal partnership between France and Niger in terms of the uranium exportation. Over the last fifteen years, Niger has been trying to negotiate better benefits for itself about foreign mining companies. In 2013, Niger reportedly demanded that the royalties Orano mines, previously called Areva, paid to the country increase from 5.5% to 12%, bringing them closer to the 13% Areva pays in Canada and the 18.5% paid in Kazakhstan. However, the French owner company refused saying that such a change would not make their operations worthwhile. And yet, according to the International Monetary Fund, Orano made $13 billion that same year, making the firm twice as big as Niger’s whole economy. And as the firm’s revenue increased, Nigeriens have remained poor.

Although in 2007, Niger’s former President Mamadou Tandja successfully negotiated a 40% increase in price for uranium paid by Orono and the company is now subject to taxes it was formerly exempt from but it still cannot be compared to the uranium price in Canada and other countries.

Aside from the issue of pricing, the uranium mines exploited by Orano have exposed thousands of people in Niger to radiation. Long before the last of France’s 230 uranium mines closed in 2001, the French government moved uranium extraction to what the World Bank refers to as “under-polluted countries.” France did so for the same reason that the World Bank’s chief economist and major advisor to US presidents used the term: polluting Niger is much cheaper than polluting France.

When the French-based company first came they promised to build a mini Paris next to the town where the mines were located but years after the town, Arlit, home to more than 120 houses has been reduced to a place of severe radiation. The dust-related fatality rate is twice that of the rest of the country, and radioactive rocks are everywhere in town. This is where almost one-third of all uranium for France’s reactors comes from.

So if truly the new administration in Niger is increasing the price of uranium to 200 euros per kilogram, it would be a welcome development for the country and would alter the France-Niger relations. Since France is a significant consumer of Niger’s uranium, the price hike would provide an opportunity for France to negotiate fairer terms and foster a more balanced relationship with Niger in the long run.

Also, if the price increase is indeed true, it would cause a ripple effect on the global uranium market. By aligning their price with global tariffs, other uranium-producing countries could reconsider their own pricing strategies. However, even if Niger if the junta is unable to persuade France to pay €200 per kilo for the uranium it takes, it appears likely that the more influence France loses in Niger, the more it will have to pay for the country’s natural resources.

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