(Reuters) -French state-owned nuclear fuel company Orano is exploring the sale of its uranium assets in Niger after the breakdown of its relationship with the West African country’s military rulers, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The uranium miner said on Tuesday that it had filed a lawsuit with the Niger courts over the “arbitrary arrest, illegal detention and unjust confiscation of property” involving its staff and assets in the country.
Orano said it had been unable to contact its mining director in Niger, Ibrahim Courmo, who was taken to the headquarters of the country’s external intelligence agency, the General Directorate of External Documentation and Surveillance, sources told Reuters earlier this month.
In early December last year Orano said Niger’s military-led government, which seized power in a coup in 2023, had taken control of the Somair mine, of which Orano owns about 63%, with the government holding the remaining stake.
The company also had a mining permit for its subsidiary Imouraren stripped in June 2024.
In a statement to Reuters, Orano said its priority remained the ongoing international arbitration process, adding that “several parties have expressed their interest in the mining assets of the group in Niger and are at liberty to submit offers if they wish to”.
(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru. Editing by Gareth Jones and Susan Fenton)
