Niger renews mining permits
Niger has announced
it will renew uranium exploration permits, which was largely
unexploited during a period of unrest, and begin an overhaul of its
mining code to boost the sector’s productivity.
The top uranium
supplier to France’s nuclear industry has attracted billions of dollars
in investments, but development has slowed in recent years due to
political instability, simmering rebellion, and an uptick in al
Qaeda-linked kidnappings in the lawless Sahel part of West Africa.
Tuareg militants
waged a low-level insurgency from 2007 to 2009 in the country’s
northern desert, leading Niger’s government to declare a state of
emergency in the zone where foreign firms held more than 100 3-year
exploration permits, hindering mining activity.
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