FS 030 Areva's Uranium Mines

July 20, 2015 - Page 1 EJOLT Areva’s Uranium Mines Ines In Agadez , Niger Fact sheet 030 INTRODUCTION Mines When uranium was discovered in impoverished Niger in the 1960s, many thought the discovery would contribute Keywords to the economic and social development of the country. Unfortunately, it turned > Uranium mines out to be a poisoned gift. Niger today is > Niger one of the poorest countri es of the world, ranking 186th out of 187 countries in the > AREVA Human Development Index of the United > Tuareg rebellion Nations Development Programme Figure 1: Location of uranuim mines in Niger, Source: Cordula Meyer, Spiegel.de > Aghir in Man NGO (UNDP) in 2012. More than 40% of children are underweight for their age, > Radioactive tailings its corporation, leaving little behind but water and access to improved water environmental disasters and health risks > Radioactive sources is scarce and almost three contamination for the people of Niger. quarters of the population are illiterate. BACKGROUND Uranium was found in the area of the Air Mountains in the Agadez region, north When France granted independence to Niger, approximately 800 kilometres Niger (and adjacent West African states) (km) North of Niamey, the capital of in 1960, contracts were made with the Niger, and 210 km north of the town of respective governments of these states Agadez , one of the main settlements of granting France exclusive rights to the Tuareg, the indigenous people of the mining and exploitation of minerals. Sahara desert (Figure 1). The mining area being far away from any Mining of uranium started in Niger in the infrastructure, the French companies area of the Air Mountains in 1968 where SOMAIR and COMINAK (both a holdi ng company and the first mine, subsidiaries of COGEMA, the French SOMAIR, an open -pit mine, were state-owned uranium mining company created. Excavation began in 1971, with today known as AREVA), created the an open pit mine ranging from 50 to 70 towns of Arlit and Akokan (Figure 1). m deep, located 7 km northwest of the With no electricity provided, the mining town of Arlit. The second mine, companies built a coal -fired power plant an underground one, was created in approximately 190 km south of the 197 4 together with the second holding mining areas, near the village of company, COMINAK. With a depth of Tchirozerine, exploiting comparatively 250 m and over 250 km of tunnels, dirty coal. Today, people in the area COMINAK is the largest underground (more than 100,000 inhabitants) are mine in the world. These two mines were complaining about respiratory problems, opened and are operated to this day, – birth defects, leukemia and cancer. the open-pit mine near the town of Arli t, Death rates linked to respiratory and the underground mine, Akouta. A problems are twice that of the rest of the third mine Imouraren, originally set to country. The e nvironment will suffer from start production in 2013, will be pollution for thousands years to come. operative from mid -2015 due to security The water is poisoned (Figure 2) and the fears and to the increased mobilization aquifers drained, the soil and the air are of the local population. contaminated, making a return to the traditional way of life of the local agro - Even after the concession of exploration pastoralists very difficul t if not licences to other mining companies from impossible. China, Japan and Canada by President Tandja in 2007, the uranium mines In spite of its wealth in mineral (Figure 3) in Niger are mainly operat ed resources, Niger doesn’t benefit from by the French state -owned company mining activities, while the nuclear AREVA which ranks first in the global French giant AREVA earns billions from July 20, 2015 - Page 2 nuclear power industry, importing half of was 114, 346 tU to the end of 2010. its uranium from Niger. Approximately 62,000 tU of this was from underground, and 52,000 t from Mining activities have also contributed to open pit mining. the destabilization of the area. Niger is a divided country, with the Tuareg living in In the past 40 years, 52 million tonnes (t) the north a nd the dominant Hausa ethnic of ore have been excavated, from which group in the south. The capital is in the approximately 100.000 t of uranium have south, and the south controls the been mined by both mines in Niger: on country. Uranium revenues from the average the mines produce more than north are used to buy weapons in the 3,000 tonnes of uranium and net EUR south, which the government then uses 200 million in sales per year: sinc e 2003, Figure 2: Poisoned water near to keep the north in check. The Agadez in Arlit production has been steadily the Akokan mine. Re gion is home of the Tuareg, the increasing and in 2009 overall Source: Greenpeace “Lords of the Desert”: estimated at 1.5 production was 1,808 tonnes of uranium. million, they are a tribe without a As of 2012, SOMAIR had produced country. They have wandered the more than 44,000 tonnes since the mine deserts of the Sahara since the 7th came into operation. The World Nuclear century, across the borders of present - Association reported that SOM AIR was day nation states. Both the French to increase the mine’s capacity to 3,000 coloni sts and the modern -day tonnes of uranium per year; the other governments that have followed have mine, Akouta, has the capacity to continued to marginalize the Tuareg and produce 2,000 tonnes per year and dismiss their claims to land rights and COMINAK has produced more than autonomy. By the time AREVA arrived, 55,000 tonnes of uranium since they had repeatedly lost the land and extraction began in 1974. Development resources they need to survive. A lack of of the large Imouraren deposit about 80 clean water and fertile soil, in particular, km south of Arlit and Akokan was threatens to destroy these nomadic confirmed in January 2008: the project is herders. Angry and desperate, a Tuareg a EUR 1.2 billion investment , the rebellion arose two decades ago, and in production is expected to be 5,000 tU/yr 2007 they organized a rebel group called for 35 years from late 2015. It will be the Mouvement des Nigeriens pour la largest mining project ever undertaken in Justice (MNJ, Nigerians’ Movement for Niger. The deposit covers 8 km by 2.5 Justice) that fights for self -determination km and contains 146,000 tonnes of of the Tuareg in the region and for a measured and indicated uranium greater share of the revenues from resources: when Imouraren will enter northern Niger's uranium wealth to be production, Niger will rank as the world's invested in the region. MNJ activities second largest uranium supplier. have caused instability and led to security prob lems that have continued The company built tw o hospitals in the on and off for many years despite towns of Arlit and Akokan officially open negotiations. to the general population of the area, but basically only the mine workers benefit AREVA’s URANIUM MINES from this service while employed and only for three years after the retirement. Niger is the world's fourth -ranking According to first -hand witnesses and producer of uranium. In 2011 it produced AREVA’s reports, during the 40 years of 4,351 tU (tonnes of uranium), and operations, not one case has been cumulative production from the country diagnosed with a work related illness This document should be cited as: Bassanese, Valentina. 2015. Avara’s Uranium Mines, Niger , EJOLT Factsheet No. 30 , 4 p. July 20, 2015 - Page 3 and for AREVA, the diseases that have mine was found to be about 100 times occurred to local population are not due higher than normal levels in the region, to mining activities but are typical of and higher than the international desert zones: the c auses of death of exempti on limits; on the streets of workers who passed away in the Akokan, radiation dose rate levels were hospitals were given to the relatives as found to be up to almost 500 times AIDS or malaria. higher than normal background levels - Death rates linked to respiratory Impact problems are twice that of the rest of the country and a large number of birth According to local population and to the de fects, leukaemia and cancer are findings of the independent studies reported carried on by CRIIRAD, Sherpa and - Inequitable distribution of the Figure 3: Uranium mine in Arlit Source: blogs.blouinnews.com Greenpeace, mining activities seriously mining profits that undermine the self - affect local residents and the determination of the local population environment in different ways: - “Everlasting pollution” instead of sustainable development that endangers - 35 million tonnes of tailings the traditional agro -pastoralist way of life which still contain 85% of the original of the Tuareg tribes radioactivity of the ore have been accumulated in the past 40 years: for 1 Conflict and consequences kg of uranium produced, 335 kg of tailings are left behind. They will remain In 2001, after a number of miners and radioactive for hundreds of thousands of workers had passed away prematurely, years their colleagues founded an NGO called - 1,600 tonnes of equipment and “Aghir in Man”, a Tamasheq word (the materials used to process the uranium language of the Tuareg people), “a call became radioactively contaminated: the fo r help”. Aghir in Man, started to ask company gave scrap materials (Figure questions to the company in regard to 4) to local people who made pots, pans, the causes of the premature deaths that dishes, roof for their houses from the were never related to the mines as metal, spreading radioactive stated by the two hospitals in the towns contamination all over the area of Arlit and Akokan (owned by AREVA).

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