With SOMAÏR paralysed, Dasa becomes Niger’s uranium pillar
A $414 million American investment in the Dasa project now stands in sharp contrast to the collapse of output at SOMAÏR (Société des mines de l’Aïr), the mine long operated by the French group Orano. Taken together, the two developments sum up the geopolitical and mining shift under way in Niamey.
How SOMAÏR lost its export lifeline
SOMAÏR accumulated a massive production shortfall, with output dropping by more than 80 percent against its nominal capacity. The cause is logistical: export routes were blocked, the border with Benin was shut, and uranium concentrate — yellowcake — could no longer be shipped out through the port of Cotonou.
Choked on both logistics and cash, Orano suspended its operations. Niger’s transitional government then withdrew the permits and took control of the site. For Niamey, SOMAÏR embodied the old neocolonial model it wanted to break away from, even at the price of an almost total shutdown at a historic mine.
Dasa steps in as Washington moves fast
While SOMAÏR’s uranium sits stranded or barely tapped, the Dasa project, led by the Canadian company Global Atomic, has become Niger’s new mining engine.
From stranded output to fresh supply
- Replacing the volumes: the Dasa deposit holds some of the highest uranium grades in the world, and is positioned to offset a large share of SOMAÏR’s lost extraction on the international market.
- Washington’s pragmatism: the $414 million injected by the US DFC lays out the logic plainly. Where French players such as Orano are paralysed or pushed aside by the political dispute with the junta, the United States secures its future supply through financial structures and North American companies that Niger’s authorities regard as more neutral.
The sovereignty paradox closing in on Niamey
The parallel is blunt. General Tiani’s government, boxed in by its all-military approach, is left with little choice but to turn back to the European and American investment it loudly denounced when it came to power.
