The coup in Niger
I am no expert on Niger – far from it – but given that the leader of the coup in this poor, isolated country is nigh-on unknown, I feel justified in making some comment.
The facts, such as are available, are at the BBC News website. The article mentions the extraction of uranium at the Arlit and Akouta mines by Areva and CNPC’s exploration of the Agadem, Tenere and Bilma blocks for oil.
What it doesn’t mention is that China, through SinoU, is also prospecting for uranium in Niger.
As part of the contract for the Agadem Block, CNPC will build a refinery that, fully operational, will have an capacity of twenty thousand barrels per day. The entire consumption of Niger for 2008 was seven thousand barrels per day. Clearly, this is advantageous to an energy-hungry China, but the advantage goes beyond immediate energy concerns. You can call it neo-colonialism or not, but China is playing a good game in building up its position in Africa.
My initial thought was that pressure should be put on Areva to suspend its investment in Niger pending the restoration of democracy; my second thought was that this would allow China to gain resources, both in oil and uranium, and influence. That series of thoughts seems a little cold war-esque.
xD.
February 19th, 2010 at 9:09 pm
I’ve been learning little bits and pieces about Africa over the past year.
China are indeed busy. At first I’d hoped to find that they are creating work there for the local people, but it seems they ship in workers and ship them back to China. That saddens me.
My next reaction was to consider the UN. I’ve seen the dire struggle the UN has in peacekeeping in Congo DRC, so I doubt that would help.
Is there really no hope that organisations such as the UN could work towards some kind of better solution?
March 29th, 2010 at 10:50 am
Niger’s two uranium mines SOMAIR’s open pit mine and COMINAK’s underground mine are owned by a French-led consortium and operated by French interests. However, as of 2007, many licences have been given to other companies from countries such as Canada and Australia in order to exploit new deposits.
Bilma Niger