Juniors fuel Niger’s latest uranium boom

COMMENTARY

Niger stands fourth in the world in uranium resources and production. The country’s uranium potential has recently attracted the attention of a number of junior mining companies, which have applied for exploration permits covering 50,000 sq. km.

The permits are in the Tim Merso basin where uranium production has been carried out for more than 30 years by Somar and Cominak, two companies operated by Areva (ARVCF-O) subsidiary Cogema Resources.

The uranium occurs in sandstones and conglomerates; siltstones and shales with high organic contents are interbedded with them. Some of the host rocks lie unconformably on older basement rocks. Most of the mineralization is on or near the Arlit flexure-fault, which strikes northwest, and on northeast-striking “satellite” faults of the Arlit structure.

There are four formations, of widely different ages, that host uranium deposits: the Guezouman and Tarat formations are Carboniferous in age, the Tchirozerine is Jurassic and the Irhazer, Cretaceous.

Uranium exploration in Niger started in 1957, when the French Commissariat l’nergie Atomique launched an airborne and field survey over showings discovered by the Bureau Minire de la France d’Outre-Mer.

A succession of discoveries followed: Azelik and Abkorun in 1959, Madouela in 1963, Arlette, Arige, Artois, Taza, Tamou and Takriza in 1965, Imouraren in 1966 and Akouta in 1967. Somar began uranium production in December 1970.

The next exploration boom occurred in the mid-1970s with the participation of Cogema, Esso Minerals, Pan Ocean Oil and International Research S.A. Airborne geophysical surveys, ground follow-up, drilling and a feasibility study by International Research over the Abkorun deposit was carried out.

All the projects were abandoned in the mid-1980s when the price of uranium collapsed.

The strong participation of junior mining companies will fuel a third exploration boom that should lead to new discoveries in the Tim Merso basin — which is as large as the Athabasca basin, but still barely explored.

During the recent Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada 2006 convention, Niger’s minister of mines and energy signed mining agreements with North Atlantic Resources for the Abelajouad permit, and with Northwestern Mineral Ventures for the Irhazer and In Gall permits.

With luck, there will be much more to come.

— The author is an independent consultant who has worked in Niger for the United Nations Development Program and is currently consulting for companies applying for prospecting permits, including North Atlantic Resources and Northwestern Mineral Ventures. He can be reached at c.jobin@sympatico.ca.