27 Comments

  1. Great work Rod – but small correction if I may

    “About 45% of that total is mined in France and 32% is mined in Niger (a neighbor of Mali)”

    That’s not quite right – France hardly produces any uranium at all. The paper you refer to actually states “France uses some 12,400 tonnes of uranium oxide concentrate (10,500 tonnes of U) per year for its electricity generation. Much of this comes from Areva in Canada (4500 tU/yr) …”

  2. Just to add some thoughts on debunking the ‘supply line’ idea.

    It appears that the Niger uranium mining is in western Niger towards the Mali border, but there are no major roads from Niger into Mali in that area. The roads go north and south not west.

    So my guess is that the material would be trucked either north through Algeria to a Mediterranean port or south through Benin or Nigeria to an Atlantic port.

    Heck with you numbers showing one shipping container every two days or so you could almost use a large cargo aircraft, 19 tonnes is about the same as a light tank and those are easily airlifted.

  3. Rod,

    But then why did Hollande state a few days ago that he would not step into Mali without instructions from the United Nations or a similar organisation.

    France did move in on their own with no such resolutions. So what is the motivation today as opposed to a few days ago ? I do not know the answer but your analysis of the Uranium motivation is strong.

    1. My speculation: because France doesn’t like a region only a small sea away to be further destabilised. And going in without an UN resolution, IIRC they did the same in Ruanda to stop the massacre there in the ’90s. France doesn’t seem to give very much weight to resolutions and sometimes goes its own way with or without approval from the others.

      Protecting economic interests could be a part of the reason behind sending troops there, but I guess most of it is politics.

  4. Since Phénix has been shut down 3 years ago and the Flamanville EPR is not anywhere near completion yet there are actually 58 NPP Units in France at the moment.

  5. “France should be making plans to invade Virginia”

    OMG – I just heard a rumor that Areva has established a facility (a forward reconnaissance enclave?) in Lynchburg. In fact Rod may pass by it on his way to work.

    It’s all becoming clear now. Those devilish Frogs! Please help sound the alarm to The Internet!

      1. “Bombarded with the miasma of bleu cheese and garlic, the poor Virginians never had a chance.”

    1. @Atomikrabbit

      Historically speaking, the French “invasion” of Virginia for its nuclear energy related assets started in the early 1990s when Framatome (one of the companies that was combined to form the current Areva) purchased the commercial nuclear business of B&W, my current employer.

      Areva’s North American headquarters is right here in Lynchburg. There was a time, when it looked like the Unistar Alliance was going to be building at least a half a dozen EPRs, when Areva was hiring about 500 new engineering employees in the area every year.

      I work with a pretty fair concentration of those exceptional people every day. Lynchburg is still a hotbed of nuclear innovation; displays some of the characteristics of a typical cluster of businesses in the same general technology field.

      That’s one of the reasons I am working hard to share what I know about the lack of risk associated with uranium mining. We can always use some more good nukes (that is Navy slang for people who are nuclear trained) in the area.

  6. The following map shows it will hard for us to claim historical rights over Virginia, it was an English colony from the very start : http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f8/Nouvelle-France1750.png
    OTOH if ever there’s also some in Kentucky … 😉

    More seriously, the connexion to Niger is not utterly stupid. We have four hostages that were captured by AQIM in the mining site of Arlit 2 years ago. If this al-Qaeda linked movement were to take over the whole of Mali, it could lead major scale attacks on Niger and make uranium mining there impossible. There would of course still be many other option for France to get uranium. But such a situation helps feeling concerned about what happens in Mali.

    It must however be said that they are quite a few Malians living in France, and the reaction I’ve seen up to now from them is always : “Please, please help us ! Please expel those terrorists out of our country !”
    Here’s a paper about that :
    http://www.voanews.com/content/malians-in-france-hold-hope-keep-eye-on-mali/1585253.html
    – “About 100,000 Malians live in France” (over a population of 14,5 millions. It’s like if 1.4 millions Americans were living in France)
    – “Doucoure said Malians will never forget the military help that France has offered. He hopes the French soldiers in Mali stay safe.”

    Robert Fawler a retired canadian diplomat who was an hostage of AQIM is fully in favor of France intervention and his opinion of what would happen if we let AQIM rule Mali is very clear :
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/robert-fowler-why-canada-must-intervene-in-mali/article7015466/

    Actually Canada has much more at stake in Mali with it’s gold mines than does France :
    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/coup-prompts-sell-off-in-miners-with-operations-in-mali/article535272/

    1. Oups … Sorry, french military in Niger to protect Uranium mines due to unrest in neighbor Mali …

    2. This appears to be a coordinated action, despite how it is being reported in the press. British and French aircraft, and refueling provided by US. The Mali government mishandled a rebellion in the north, and now Western nations (under the auspices of counter-terrorism) are attempting to provide assistance where they are able (in an effort to prevent the area from becoming a larger hot spot for terrorism and muslim extremists).

      Retaliation from groups such as Al Qaeda has been quick, and focused on Western installations in the region (gas field in Algeria, and it appears uranium installations in Nigeria are also at risk). French special forces have been sent to Nigeria to protect up to 2,700 national citizens (existing mines, and a mining operation in development), and they did so before seeking permission of the Nigerian government (highlighting the seriousness of the concern). Muslim extremists have said they are taking these actions: “in response to France’s operation, Algeria’s decision to open its airspace to the French and western looting of the country’s natural resources.”

      So yes, the actions in Mali were not taken to protect uranium resources in Nigeria, but uranium resources in Nigeria are nevertheless involved. And there appears to be a reasonable case that these tensions are long standing, and have been historically rooted in long-standing conflicts with Western imperial powers, and natural resource development in the region (the predominant resources being gold, oil, natural gas, and uranium).

  7. Hi there,

    I think that the Mali conflict has something to do with the uranium mines from Arlit, Niger.

    1. Well … the region is a mess, and Niger is one of the poorest places in the world (with wages at $1 day). I suppose it depends on what you think are the sources of the Toureg Rebellion, and the demands of the rebels (“the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad,” or NMLA) which appears to have strong political ties to the former Gadhafi regime. They deny having any ties to Al Qaeda (who appear to be just another group of opportunists looking to capitalize on the growing discontent and trouble in the region). So a lot of people seem to want a piece of the action in the region (Libyans, Al Qaeda, drug trafficking warlords, Malinese, Toureg separatists, UK, France, US, Canadians, Chinese). But NMLA is an independence movement, “the Lost Lords of the Sahara,” and they appear to want their political unity back, tribal independence, and cultural freedoms (despite many decades of being robbed of them or taken by force “in their view”). Whether this is a realistic demand or not (and whether an armed rebellion is way to go about this), well, this is entirely a different question? It’s quite possible the movement has been hijacked by more extreme Gadhafi loyalists who are just looking for another fight to pick (and those impoverished masses of the Toureg mainstream caught in the middle).

      Here are two articles that shed some light on the conflict (and uranium, or more broadly natural resource interests in the region, do seem to be playing a role).

      http://pulitzercenter.org/reporting/lost-lords-sahara

      http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2012/03/03/who_are_the_tuaregs.html

      Who are the Tauregs?

      “The rebellion dates back more than 100 years to the colonization of the Sahara, said Barbara Worley, an anthropologist at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. “The colonial governments passed laws that broke up the economic structure and impoverished the Tuaregs.” Poverty bred resentment.

      There have been four other rebellions since the 1960s, when Mali gained its independence from France. But an independent Tuareg nation only became a goal after the creation of South Sudan, she said.

      “At the beginning this was essentially a political movement, but with the return of the Tuareg from Libya it became military as well as political,” said Pierre Boilley, a professor of Contemporary African History at the University of Paris. “We’re in a very new kind of rebellion.”

      The NMLA not only have newfound military expertise, they are also pushing for independence for everyone in the region, not just the Tuaregs, Boilley said.

      With northern Mali rich in uranium and oil, the government is unlikely to hand over the region without a fight.”

      Lost Lords of the Sahara

      The rebels, all ethnic Tuareg, descend from the fierce nomads who for several centuries dominated this desolate region of North Africa. Fighting under the banner of the Movement of Nigeriens for Justice (MNJ) and supported in part by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi, they had captured 72 government soldiers at Tazerzaït and renewed their longstanding Tuareg demands that the government share revenue derived from another source of treasure: uranium mined on their traditional lands. In a show of goodwill the rebels released all of their prisoners—except one. “He is a war criminal,” the commander says …

      When the French finally defeated the Tuareg (the last West African tribe to be pacified), their lands were absorbed into parts of Niger, Mali, Algeria, and Libya. After France cast off its African colonies in the 1960s, ethnic groups that had long been the target of Tuareg raiders rose to power in the newly independent governments of Mali and Niger. These new leaders remained highly suspicious of their Tuareg minorities but generally left them to wander their desert lands with their flocks. Problems began to flare when droughts struck the region. In recent decades, by some estimates rainy seasons have shrunk from more than 60 days a year to less than 30, and Tuareg families have struggled to sustain sizable herds. “Animals are everything to a Tuareg,” an elderly nomad once explained to me. “We drink their milk, we eat their meat, we use their skin, we trade them. When the animals die, the Tuareg dies.”

      With their herds decimated, many Tuareg in Niger began asking why the government wasn’t sharing the wealth derived from the rich uranium deposits that for decades have been mined from their grazing lands. During the 1990s a Tuareg militia, largely trained and armed by Qaddafi, fought the Niger army over the issue. A peace accord was signed in 1995, but most Tuareg say that little changed. Jobs remained scarce, even as production increased at the major uranium mine at Arlit. Tuareg communities in the north complained that the only government representative they encountered was the taxman, who dutifully collected annual taxes from every nomad family. If a family didn’t have money, the taxman took one of their animals. “Why do we pay taxes?” a nomad once asked me, sweeping his hand toward the endless yellow desert. “Do you see our wells, our schools, our clinics?”

      By 2007, with the price of uranium rising, the Niger government was negotiating lucrative contracts with France that would make to make Niger the world’s second largest uranium producer. More deals were struck allowing companies from China, Canada, and the U.S. to explore the desert for other resources. With the nation mired in poverty and the government refusing to make meaningful investments in Tuareg areas, the nomads rebelled again.

      Yes, poverty appears to be as much a cause as anything else (and colonial powers taking up stakes and advancing rational self interest for natural resources in the region). Also a concern, however, it seems to me to be Gadhafi thugs spilling over the border (and ethnic Touregs once again caught in the middle). Maybe they are fierce nomads standing up for their cultural and tribal independence with guns, or maybe the majority of them are nomadic families residing on their grazing grounds (decimated by drought) and content to be left alone. Whatever the case, it’s clearly very completed. Maybe this is a compelling example of climate impacts, and regions that are currently experiencing social displacements (and lost of traditional livelihoods) as a consequence of prolonged drought?

  8. Your figures are not accurate. Mali has the 5th largest uranium reserves. Like many resource exploration projects, exact figures are not made available to the public. That would spoil large deals.

    However before extractive industries can move into the country, a friendly government must rise to power.

    1. @Adam Smith

      That is important information. Do you have any sources that can be made available so that we can see for ourselves? The sources I quoted in my post are quite reliable, but obviously the WNA would depend on reported finds from other organizations. When you say “5th largest uranium reserves” is that on a world wide basis, putting Mali just ahead of Niger, its neighbor?

  9. this is for you Mr researcher: the idea of invasion its not about how much the malian uranium its worth? but rather who could buy it? dont forget that you have an emerging nucluar power!!!!!!!!! Iran of cource.
    that what explain the stock that frence have. they could use that mony to pay their own depths. the idea is who can controle it from those emerging power even if it cost to much for theur own national economy. its an old game just open your eyse.
    do you beleive that canada is going to sell uranium to Iran or North corea?

  10. Mr. Adams unfortunately misses the point entirely, and his numbers count for nothing. Of course France is concerned about its uranium mines in Niger that supply 1/3 of France`s annual uranium consumption. The concern here is not about supply lines, but radical Islam trying to take over Mali, and a possible spill over into Niger.

    So, rather than supply lines the French are concerned about the future of the MINES themselves and what could happen if you have a radical muslim revolution in Niger denying France access to these mines. Yes, France doesn`t need Mali`s uranium ores, but that`s simply not the point.

    Btw., this is not a conspiracy theory, only a geopolitical analysis at the present situation where we have had radical muslim takeovers in many North African and potentially Middle East countries.

    Think again Mr. Adams, and think hard!

    1. @Lars

      Please read my post again more carefully. I was responding to a specific theory that was being bandied about that said that France was interested in Mali’s uranium. That is not the case.

      I agree that there is a reason for concern about spill over into Niger. That is a plausible explanation.

    1. MP Laurent Louis seems to oppose all intervention (Mali, LIbya, Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran). And his diatribe against US and neocolonialism is boilerplate (and is unspecific). Think Dennis Kucinich.

      The government has lost control over northern Mali, and it’s currently a lawless region that is getting picked clean by folks with very big guns and have little else to offer but mayhem, intimidation, and despair for local populations. They mainly come from Libya and are interested in proxy battles (not independence or greater human rights for the region’s minorities). France (with help from US, England, and even the UN), are not taking over Mali. They are helping government restore order, and they are looking to contain the spread of blood and mayhem from remnants of Kadhafi’s regime in Libya. There are long standing human rights and colonial struggles here, for sure, local populations do want greater independence and decision making (but this is not what intervention is about). And the best way to get this with a stronger Mali State … one able to protect and defend rule of law, peace and order, and defend autonomous rights (perhaps even resource sharing) for local communities in the North. To do nothing is not a particularly attractive or consistent approach to the alternative.

    1. As usual, an informationally-challenged anti-nuke fails to realize that a “Niger uranium mine” is in … well … Niger, an entirely different country than Mali.

      Geography has many useful facts.

  11. “The nation has considerable natural resources, with gold, uranium, phosphates, kaolinite, salt and limestone being most widely exploited. Mali is estimated to have in excess of 17,400 tonnes of uranium (measured + indicated + inferred).[33][34] In 2012 a further uranium mineralized north zone was identified.”
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mali

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