Mining in Niger
Encyclopedia
The Nigeren Mining industry is a crucial piece of the Economy of Niger
Economy of Niger
The economy of Niger is based largely upon internal markets, subsistence agriculture, and the export of raw commodities: food stuffs to neighbors and raw minerals to world markets. Niger, is a landlocked Sub-Sahara African nation, and over the past two decades has consistently been ranked near or...
. Exports of minerals consistently account for 40% of exports.
Mineral commodities produced in Niger included cement
Cement
In the most general sense of the word, a cement is a binder, a substance that sets and hardens independently, and can bind other materials together. The word "cement" traces to the Romans, who used the term opus caementicium to describe masonry resembling modern concrete that was made from crushed...
, coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, gypsum
Gypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
, limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....
, salt
Salt
In chemistry, salts are ionic compounds that result from the neutralization reaction of an acid and a base. They are composed of cations and anions so that the product is electrically neutral...
, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
, tin
Tin
Tin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead and has two possible oxidation states, +2 and the slightly more stable +4...
, and uranium
Uranium
Uranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table, with atomic number 92. It is assigned the chemical symbol U. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons...
. In 2006, Niger was the world’s fourth ranked producer of uranium. a new Mining Code was adopted in August 2006. under the new Mining Code, the national Mine research Office, whose responsibilities included organizing mining exploration programs, was replaced by two newly established entities: the geological and Mining research Center and Société du Patrimoine des Mines du Niger (SOPaMin). SOPaMin is to hold the state’s shares in the existing uranium companies and is in charge of engaging in commercial transactions, such as uranium sales. Since the adoption of the new Mining Code, the government has issued a significant number of new mineral exploration permits. Niger joined the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) in 2005 and, as part of the EITI efforts, appointed in late 2006 a national consultative committee, which included representatives of the general public. A first audit report reconciling revenue paid by mining companies with government receipts was scheduled to be issued in late 2007.
Minerals in the National Economy
Niger’s mineral sector accounted for about 3% of the GDP and for about 40% of exports. according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), a renewed interest in the generation of nuclear energy had led to increased demand for uranium, encouraged investment expansions at existing uranium mines, and promoted exploration. Foreign direct investment in the sector from 2008 to 2012 was projected to be $1.4 billion, which would double the country’s uranium production capacityPetroleum
Kaouar
The Kaouar, or Kaouar Cliffs is a north-south escarpment running some 150 km in north east Niger. Surrounded by the Ténéré desert and the dunes of the Erg of Bilma, easterly winds striking the 100 meter high escarpment of Kaouar provide easy access to groundwater for ten oases on the leeward side...
escarpment, south to the western side of lake Chad. The northern section, titled the "Ténéré Block" covers 71,155 km2 (17.3 million acres) of the northern end of this basin. The southern end of the depression, near the town of N'guigmi
N'guigmi
N'guigmi is a city and Commune of fifteen thousand in the eastern most part of Niger, very near to Lake Chad - lying on its shore until the lake retreated....
, is parceled out as the "Agadem Block".
In 1992, the Djado permit (at the northern tip of Termit-Ténéré Rift Basin) was awarded to Hunt Oil Company
Hunt Oil Company
Hunt Oil Company is an independent oil and gas company headquartered in Dallas, Texas. It has its main oil production activities in the United States, Canada, and Yemen. It also participates in the liquefied natural gas production projects in Yemen and Peru .Together with Magnum Hunter Resources...
, and in 2003 the Tenere
Ténéré
The Ténéré is a desert region in the south central Sahara. It comprises a vast plain of sand stretching from northeastern Niger into western Chad, occupying an area of over...
permit was awarded to a Chinese Canada joint venture. An ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
-Petronas
Petronas
PETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and...
joint venture was sold sole rights to the "Agadem block" at the south of the basin in the Diffa Region north of Lake Chad
Lake Chad
Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...
, but never went beyond exploration.
The "Ténéré Block" is leased in 2003 by a consortium of TG World Energy Corp. of Canada (20%) and CNPC International Ténéré (CNPCIT), a unit of the China National Petroleum Corporation
China National Petroleum Corporation
China National Petroleum Corporation is a state-owned fuel-producing corporation and the largest integrated oil and gas company in the People's Republic of China...
(80%). In October 2006, TG World Energy Corp. of Canada spudded the Saha-1 well, which was the first well in a three-well drilling program that the company planned to carry out through 2007. The well flowed uneconomic quantities of petroleum and was abandoned as noncommercial. the company’s next target, the Fachi
Fachi
Fachi is an oasis surrounded by the Ténéré desert and the dunes of the Erg of Bilma in eastern Niger, placed on the western edge of the small Agram mountain outcropping. It has an estimated population of some 2000 people. A stopping point of the Agadez to Kaouar caravans of the Azalay, Fachi is 150...
West-1 exploration well, was drilled in 2007. TG World’s future plans included the drilling of a third exploration well at a location that was to be determined after the results of Fachi West-1 were known, and the acquisition of an additional 700 km of two-dimensional (2-d) seismic data for regional and prospect-specific coverage in the Ténéré Block
A further "Bilma
Bilma
Bilma is an oasis town in north east Niger with a population of around 2,500 people. It lies protected from the desert dunes under the Kaouar Cliffs and is the largest town along the Kaouar escarpment...
Block" (to the east of Ténéré Block) was leased by CNPC in 2003.
While test drilling continues in the Fachi / Tenere area, directly south towards Lake Chad
Lake Chad
Lake Chad is a historically large, shallow, endorheic lake in Africa, whose size has varied over the centuries. According to the Global Resource Information Database of the United Nations Environment Programme, it shrank as much as 95% from about 1963 to 1998; yet it also states that "the 2007 ...
, the so called "Agadem Block" was leased to the China National Petroleum Corporation
China National Petroleum Corporation
China National Petroleum Corporation is a state-owned fuel-producing corporation and the largest integrated oil and gas company in the People's Republic of China...
in 2003, as the An ExxonMobil
ExxonMobil
Exxon Mobil Corporation or ExxonMobil, is an American multinational oil and gas corporation. It is a direct descendant of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil company, and was formed on November 30, 1999, by the merger of Exxon and Mobil. Its headquarters are in Irving, Texas...
-Petronas
Petronas
PETRONAS, short for Petroliam Nasional Berhad, is a Malaysian oil and gas company that was founded on August 17, 1974. Wholly owned by the Government of Malaysia, the corporation is vested with the entire oil and gas resources in Malaysia and is entrusted with the responsibility of developing and...
joint venture in Agadem was not pursued by the companies. Here the CNPC made six oil discoveries and one gas discovery amounting to approximately 400 million barrels of oil equivalent. The Chinese government agency has planned to drill oil reserves here, and in June 2008 signed a deal with the Nigerien government to build a 1 million-metric-ton a year refinery at Ganaram near Zinder
Zinder
Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...
. The company has also pledged to build a 2000 kilometres (1,242.7 mi) pipeline to transport oil out of the country, and connect with its projects in neighboring Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
. In October 2008, the government and the CNPC broke ground on the Ganaram refinery, projecting a completion date of 2012. It was announced that the refinery and pipeline deal brought a $5 billion payment to the Nigerien government, and when fully operational, could produce 20,000 barrels of refined petroleum a day. In 2008, Niger consumed around 7,000 barrels a day domestically.
Uranium
From the 1950s, Niger has been known to have large uranium deposits in the desert north of the Agadez Region, which is located about 1,000 km northeast of Niamey Only in 1969 was the first mine opened around ArlitArlit
Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border with Algeria...
operated by French and Nigerien government partnership. Arlit, and its nearby Akouta mine, created a boom town, as Nigerien budgets flourished in the 1970s era of record uranium prices. Extracted uranium was initially sold entirely by French concessionaire corporations, with contracts later revised to give Niger both an overall contract payment, rent, and a smaller amount of ore it could sell on world markets.
Uranium ore mined in the Arlit -- Agadez
Agadez
-Sources:* Aboubacar Adamou. "Agadez et sa région. Contribution à l'étude du Sahel et du Sahara nigériens", Études nigériennes, n°44, , 358 p.* Julien Brachet. Migrations transsahariennes. Vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé . Paris: Le Croquant, , 324 p. ISBN : 978-2-91496865-2.*. Saudi Aaramco...
area is extracted as Triuranium octoxide. One 2011 industry comparison of total ore in the three largest mined consessions estimated Areva NC
Areva NC
Areva NC, formerly Cogema is a French company, created in 1976 from the production division of the French government's CEA It is an industrial group active in all stages of the uranium fuel cycle, including uranium mining, conversion, enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing, and recycling...
's operative Somaïr deposit to total 14,000 tonnes (with U3O8 @ 0.3%), the working Cominak concession to total 29,000t (U3O8 @ 0.4%), and the Imouraren mine under construction to tap a larger but less concentrated deposit of 120,000t (U3O8 @ 0.15%). Prior to 2006, Franco-Nigerien partnerships, led by the French parastatal Areva, were the only companies licensed to explore or exploit Niger's large uranium reserves. In 2006 bids for exploration permits were opened to dozens of foreign companies, led by Chinese, Canadian, US, and other interests. By 2011 China's Teguidda mine was the first of the non-French consessions to begin building facilities to extract ore.
In addition to Paris-based Areva NC, which was the country’s sole uranium producer, at least three companies were exploring for uranium in Niger in 2006. These companies included Bayswater Uranium Corp., a group of companies led by China National Uranium Corp., and North Atlantic resources Ltd.
Production of uranium, which increased by about 11% in 2006, came from the Akouta underground mine, which was operated by Compagnie Minière d’akouta (COMINAK), and the Arlit
Arlit
Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border with Algeria...
open pit mine, which was operated by Société des Mines de l’aïr (SOMAIR). COMINAK was owned by Areva NC
Areva NC
Areva NC, formerly Cogema is a French company, created in 1976 from the production division of the French government's CEA It is an industrial group active in all stages of the uranium fuel cycle, including uranium mining, conversion, enrichment, spent fuel reprocessing, and recycling...
(34%), the government of Niger (31%), Overseas uranium resources development Company of Japan (25%), and Enusa industrias avanzadas, S.a. of Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
(10%) and employed about 1,100 people. SOMAIR was owned by Areva NC (63.4%) and the government of Niger (36.6%) and employed about 600 people. an action plan was being implemented at COMINAK to optimize production while the company prepared to mine the new Afasto ore body at the end of 2007. In 2006, the company was granted exploration permits for the Agebout and the Afouday areas and worked on the characterization of the Imouraren ore body to determine its commercial feasibility. Areva NC submitted 19 new permit applications in 2006 in accordance with the recently amended Nigerien mining law. the Imouraren permit, which was located about 80 km south of Arlit
Arlit
Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border with Algeria...
, was granted in July 2006. The permit included an ore body discovered in 1969 that Areva NC planned to mine owing to favorable market conditions. One hundred people were employed at the site in 2006. More than 55 km of development drilling had been completed at the site during a period of 1 year and more than 2 t of ore had been shipped for testing to Areva NC’s laboratories
Bayswater Uranium Corp. applied for 16 uranium concessions covering 8,000 km2 in two blocks in Niger. according to the company, the granting of the exploration concessions was delayed while the government reviewed the country’s Mining Code; the review was completed on November 1, 2006. Bayswater was required to reapply for the concessions. the company expected to receive government approval and planned then to conduct airborne radiometric and magnetic surveys and followup prospecting of anomalous targets to define uranium targets of interest for subsequent drilling
A group of companies led by China National Uranium Corporation was granted uranium exploration licenses covering the areas of Madaouela and Teguidda north of InGall
North Atlantic Resources Ltd. (Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
) was granted a uranium exploration license for the 1,963-km2 Abelajouad property, which is located in the Arlit
Arlit
Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr mountains. It is 200 km south by road from the border with Algeria...
region about 800 km from Niamey. under the terms of the agreement with the government, the company was to invest about $2.2 million during a period of 3 years to maintain its interest in the property. if the project were to advance to commercial production, the government would retain a 10% carried interest and up to a 20% participating interest in the project
Outlook
the IMF estimates that real GDP growth in Niger is likely to reach 4.5% in 2007 owing, in part, to the development of the gold and uranium sectors. the adoption of a new Mining Code under which the government is to participate in new mining development initiatives with the private sector and renewed international interest in the generation of nuclear energy, suggest that Niger is likely to benefit from an increase in foreign direct investment in the mineral sector in the near future.See also
- Economy of NigerEconomy of NigerThe economy of Niger is based largely upon internal markets, subsistence agriculture, and the export of raw commodities: food stuffs to neighbors and raw minerals to world markets. Niger, is a landlocked Sub-Sahara African nation, and over the past two decades has consistently been ranked near or...
- List of countries by gold production
- List of countries by uranium production
- Uranium reservesUranium reservesUranium reserves are reserves of recoverable uranium, regardless of isotope, based on a set market price. The list given here is based on Uranium 2009: Resources, Production and Demand, a joint report by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency published in 2010....
(list by nation)