{"id":612138,"date":"2026-09-26T06:20:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T06:20:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612138\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T06:20:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T06:20:17","slug":"niger-signs-deal-with-australian-group-to-relaunch-uranium-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/612138\/","title":{"rendered":"Niger signs deal with Australian group to relaunch uranium project"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Niger&#8217;s government said Wednesday it has signed a new agreement with the Madaouela Mining Company (MAMICO) to relaunch a uranium mining project in the north of the country.<\/p>\n<p>The junta that has ruled the west African country since a military coup in 2023 advocates sovereignty over the country&#8217;s mineral resources, including uranium.<\/p>\n<p>MAMICO is 60% owned by the Australian Atomic Eagle group and 40% by the Niger government.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The agreement provides, among other things, for the payment of an initial fee of $10 million, capacity-building for the mining administration, local development and the creation of around 1,000 jobs for young Nigeriens&#8221;, the mining ministry said in a statement on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>Uranium mining in Niger is also at the heart of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africanews.com\/2026\/02\/04\/niger-military-government-to-sue-french-uranium-giant-over-environment\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">a standoff between the country&#8217;s leaders and former colonial power France<\/a>, which holds 90% of the capital of the Orano mining company.<\/p>\n<p>Niger&#8217;s military authorities <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africanews.com\/2025\/06\/20\/niger-to-nationalize-uranium-venture-operated-by-frances-orano\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\">nationalised the local subsidiary of Orano<\/a> as part of a wider pivot away from Paris and towards alternative allies such as Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Orano has launched several legal proceedings of its own against Niger, accusing the junta of confiscating its assets in the unrest-hit country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Niger&#8217;s government said Wednesday it has signed a new agreement with the Madaouela Mining Company (MAMICO) to relaunch&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612139,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[273,111,139,69,147],"class_list":["post-612138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}