Niger: the closure of one of the largest uranium mines
Employee of a uranium mine in Niger.
(Photo: AFP)
Text by: Arnaud Jouve Follow
12 mins
One of the largest underground uranium mines in the world closes its doors.
The Akouta Mining Company (Cominak), a subsidiary of Orano Cycle (French multinational, ex-Areva), which had been exploiting uranium deposits in the province of Agadez in northern Niger since 1978, stops production on Wednesday 31 March.
A closure carried out under unsatisfactory conditions for NGOs which denounce, beyond the social cost, a heavy legacy which will have health and environmental consequences.
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Uranium is the fuel for nuclear power plants.
Because the fission of uranium produces a very large quantity of energy which makes it possible to run the turbo-generators of nuclear power plants and therefore to produce electricity.
An ore highly sought after by countries which have installed nuclear power plants and in particular by France which has a large nuclear fleet with 56 reactors in operation.
However, Niger has significant deposits of uranium, it is the main mineral wealth of the country.
But this sector, which represented 60% of export earnings in 2010, is now in difficulty.
The mines would be less profitable since the fall in uranium prices following the nuclear disaster in Fukushima and the Akouta Mining Company (Cominak), which was to date the second largest uranium exploitation in Niger, closed.
Uranium mining in Niger
It is in the province of Agadez in the north of the country that the exploitation of uranium in Niger developed in territories where Tuareg populations lived.
An industrial history which will give rise to the creation of several mining sites in the middle of the desert and to the creation of a town, “Arlit”, to house the workers.
The mining town now has more than 100,000 inhabitants.
Originally the first uranium mine, still in operation, created in 1968, was the Arlit open-cast mine, operated by the Aïr mines company (Somaïr), originally owned in 69 % by the French company Areva (now Orano Cycle) and 31% by the National Office of Mining Resources of Niger.
In 1974, south of Arlit, was created one of the largest underground uranium mines in the world, with an ore reprocessing plant, the Akouta Mining Company (Cominak) whose shareholders are Orano Cycle (34% - French), SOPAMIN (31% - Nigerien), OURD (25% - Japanese), Enusa (10% - Spanish).
Cominak decided a year ago to stop its activity today, citing the exhaustion of the site.
This mining history is therefore strongly linked to France in great demand for uranium to supply its nuclear fleet which has made Niger its main source of supply but which has since diversified by importing uranium from Canada and Kazakhstan. and Mongolia, while continuing to explore new sites around the world.
This quest for new deposits also concerns Niger where it could be a question of relaunching in particular the huge Imouraren deposit whose entry into production was frozen in 2014 and which was to be exploited by Imouraren SA, also a subsidiary of Orano Cycle. .
A site which could have produced, according to Areva, 5,000 tonnes of uranium metal per year for 35 years and which would have made Niger the second largest uranium producer in the world.
In 2007, following a collapse in uranium prices, Areva lost its monopoly position and the Niger government received license applications from North American, Australian, Asian and South African companies.
In 2008, 139 exploration and exploitation permits will be sold in less than a year.
In this context, in 2007, another deposit was created, the Azélik mine, operated by Somina, a joint venture between the Nigerien state and
China Nuclear International Uranium Corporation
, a subsidiary of CNNC (the Chinese national nuclear company). .
In the region, another Canadian mine opening project recently opened, but only the mines operated by Somaïr and Somina are now in the production phase.
The Minister of Mines, Omar Hamidou Tchiana (L) and the CEO of Areva sign a partnership agreement on several mines.
AFP / BOUREIMA HAMA
One of the largest underground uranium mines in the world
The Cominak mine, created in 1974 and commissioned in 1978, will have produced 75,000 tonnes of uranium until 2021. That is more than a third of Niger's average production, which is 3,000 tonnes per year, broken down into 1,100 tonnes for Cominak and 1,900 tonnes for Somaïr.
Orano's overall production over the year was around 7,300 tonnes.
Unlike the Somaïr which is in the open air, the Cominak mine was one of the largest underground uranium mines in the world with more than 200 km of galleries exploited at a depth of 250 meters where 600 employees and 700 worked. subcontractors.
But the decision was taken to definitively close this operation because, as Gilles Recoche, the commitment, responsibility and communication director of Orano explains, “
the operation stops because clearly the resources are exhausted.
Of course, there is still uranium in the ground, but it still has to be exploitable, profitable and able to pay people…
We began to think about the redevelopment of the site in 2002. Following this, decisions were taken unanimously by the Board of Directors in 2019 and the closure was validated on October 15, 2020.
"
The mine made its last shot on March 25 and ceases operation of its site on March 31, but the company Cominak will continue to exist for at least fifteen years to manage its dismantling and the safety of the site in accordance with commitments made with the Nigerien authorities and to the international standards required for this type of operation, specifies Gilles Recoche: “
now we are going to enter the redevelopment phase of the site which will last ten years which will be followed for at least 5 years by environmental monitoring of this work.
This is an important phase for us, managing the closure and redevelopment of a mine well today is essential for us.
"
Arlit is in mourning!
In the streets of Arlit, the announcement of the closure of the operation is a shock for a good part of the population especially as Cominak, which has taken great care of its 600 employees, refuses to pay compensation and long-term medical follow-up to the 700 sub-contractors who also worked in the mine.
For Almoustapha Alhacen, president of the NGO AGHIRIN'MAN, the cessation of Cominak's activity is a disaster.
“
Arlit is in mourning
.
For us, this closure cannot be explained.
To say that it is the end of the deposit is false: there is no study to prove it and we have the problem of these 700 workers [subcontractors] who worked under the same conditions, who were exposed to the same. radiation hazards than their colleagues for at least 20 years and who will not receive a redundancy bonus.
For us, nothing justifies closing this mine, the workforce is there and they want to work.
We need the energy and the uranium is there.
On average with us, each has two wives and eight children and to put this world without resources without giving it time to prepare for its future, it is recklessness and irresponsibility.
We cannot act solely on the basis of money, that is what we condemn
”
,
noting with humor and dismay that
“ Cominak organized a party with a barbecue and a ribbon cut for the closing.
You can only see that in Arlit.
We may wonder if this is not an effect of radioactivity… ”
The Arlit uranium mine in 2019 AFP
The radioactive threat
Because behind the social question, there is the health and environmental threat of radioactivity.
Uranium is a radioactive metal that has a physical half-life of 4.5 billion years, that is, its radioactivity is only halved after 4.5 billion years.
So its lifespan is excessively long and the radioactive products associated with uranium are for some very radiotoxic by inhalation and others by ingestion.
However, when uranium is extracted, around twenty different radioactive products are brought to the surface of the ground which will then end up in the air, in water, in the food chain, in the soil and which will create a very long-term pollution.
For Bruno Chareyron, the head of the Criirad laboratory (The Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity), “
uranium and some of its radioactive descendants emit radiation called gamma radiation, which is extremely powerful invisible radiation that can pass through lead and walls.
Therefore, uranium miners are constantly exposed to this radiation which one cannot protect oneself because even lead clothes would not stop this radiation
.
So if these materials are spread to make tracks and roads or even worse in houses
[as it was revealed in Arlit by NGOs several years ago, Editor's note],
that means that the inhabitants of these places will be exposed. to these invisible radiations.
"
This risk of contamination particularly affects staff, as Bruno Chareyron comments.
“
The monitoring of French uranium workers shows a lung cancer death rate 40
% above normal and a kidney cancer death rate 90
% above normal.
This is why the monitoring of minors in Niger is a very important issue because the pathologies often appear after a few years and sometimes after a few decades, hence the need to follow them, to set up diagnostics. , care and compensation over the very long term.
For Cominak to close without there being a real follow-up plan for subcontractors in particular, is not a responsible attitude on the part of a large industrial subsidiary of Orano.
"
The poisoned legacy
The other huge subject of concern is the management of the millions of tonnes of radioactive residues produced by the company and the Cominak plant and which are today in the open.
These dusts and radioactive gases are easily dispersed and reach the environment of the urban agglomeration of Akokan Arlit.
The implementation of major long-term solutions to secure and contain this radioactive waste will be Cominak's main challenge for the years to come.
For decades, contaminated scrap metal has been sold in markets and sometimes found its way inside houses, sometimes to make walls.
Cominak is also expected to identify and decontaminate these houses, not to mention access to drinking water and electricity which may become more complicated once the company has left.
Closing a mine is always difficult, a uranium mine even more so.
Orano, through its subsidiary Orano Cycle Niger, which manages Cominak, is committed to being exemplary and playing its part.
The people of Arlit are waiting for concrete answers and are worried about the immensity of the challenge.
►
See also: Niger rejoins the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative
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