Nigerien military authorities have withdrawn the operating permit for a large uranium mine from the French company Orano, the company said, significantly escalating tensions between the military junta and the country's former colonial power.
Niger, a landlocked country of 26 million, is the world's seventh biggest supplier of uranium, used for the production of weapons and nuclear power. In 2022, the country supplied over a quarter of the uranium used in the European Union, according to the bloc's nuclear energy agency, making it its second-biggest uranium source, after Kazakhstan.
