The Dasa project emerges as Niger’s new uranium powerhouse
A $414 million American investment in the Dasa uranium project stands in stark contrast to the production collapse at SOMAÏR (Société des Mines de l’Aïr), historically operated by the French group Orano. This situation illustrates the geopolitical and mining shift currently underway in Niamey.
SOMAÏR’s paralysis and the rupture with France
SOMAÏR has accumulated a massive production deficit, plummeting by over 80% from its nominal capacity, due to blocked export routes, the closure of borders with Benin, and the impossibility of transporting uranium concentrate (yellowcake) to the port of Cotonou. This logistical and financial asphyxiation led Orano to suspend its activities, before the Nigerien transitional government eventually revoked the permits and took control of the site. For Niamey, SOMAÏR embodied the old neocolonial model from which it needed to detach, even at the cost of an almost total halt in production at this historic mine.
Dasa takes over: American pragmatism fills the void
While SOMAÏR’s uranium remains blocked or under-exploited, the Dasa project—led by the Canadian company Global Atomic—is becoming Niger’s new mining lung.
- Volume replacement: The Dasa deposit boasts some of the highest uranium grades in the world, intended to largely offset SOMAÏR’s extraction losses for the international market.
- Washington’s pragmatism: The injection of $414 million by the U.S. DFC demonstrates that while French actors (Orano) find themselves paralyzed or sidelined by political disputes with the junta, the United States secures its future supplies by working through financial structures and North American companies perceived as more neutral by Nigerien authorities.
Reconfiguring mining sovereignty
This parallel shows that General Tiani’s regime finds itself trapped by its all-military policy and is therefore forced to turn back to Euro-American investments that were criticized when it first came to power.