5JUL2024 Niger government withdraws GoviEx Uranium mining rights The Vancouver-based company said it has been informed by the Minister of Mines, by letter, “that it no longer has rights over the perimeter of the Madaouela mining permit, which is now in the public domain”. GoviEx began operations in Niger in 2007, and has advanced Madaouela from the initial exploration phase, through a period of "historically low" uranium prices, to the publication of a feasibility study in late 2022, on the way completing some 650,000 metres of drilling to define a potential mineral resource which the company says is now amongst the largest known in the world. "With the recent recovery in uranium prices, the Madaouela Project was poised for development and the Company had started to advance despite the political changes in Niger since the coup d'Etat on 26 July 2023," GoviEx said.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Niger-government-withdraws-GoviEx-mining-rights
24JUN2024
Paladin acquires Fission, creating multi-asset uranium company
Australia-headquartered Paladin Energy Limited is to acquire Canadian uranium project developer Fission Uranium Corp in a transaction the companies say will create a “globally significant uranium company” listed on Australian and Canadian stock exchanges and will help advance Fission's Patterson Lake South project towards production.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Paladin-acquires-Fission-creating-multi-asset-uran
Cameco calculates industry average prices from the month-end prices published by UxC and TradeTech. Long-term prices prior to May 2004 are not industry-averages, but are from TradeTech only.
https://www.cameco.com/invest/markets/uranium-price
The central Sahelian juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger established a confederation that deepens their break with ECOWAS and aims to strengthen their domestic and regional credibility. Malian junta leader Assimi Goita, Burkinabe leader Ibrahim Traore, and Nigerien leader Abdirahmane Tchiani signed four documents that established the Confederation of Sahel States (CES), or Confédération des États du Sahel, following their first joint conference.[1] The three leaders held their meeting on July 6, a day before ECOWAS held its own scheduled conference.[2] The three countries had already been working together under the name Alliance of Sahel States (Alliance des États du Sahel, AES) since September 2023.[3]
The new confederation will likely create more opportunities for the juntas to continue coordinating diplomatic efforts and strengthening ties with like-minded non-Western partners. All three AES regimes have already been broadly coordinating their diplomatic activity by expelling various American, French, and UN partner forces and security assistance in favor of closer cooperation with alternative “sincere partners” since taking power, such as China, Iran, Russia, and Turkey.[41] The junta leaders reaffirmed the need to continue speaking with “one voice” during the summit.[42] The creation of a rotating CES presidency and parliament will help advance this goal. Mali had already directly facilitated cooperation between Russia and the rest of the AES by either hosting meetings between Russian and Burkinabe and Nigerien officials or serving as a base area for Russian officials to travel to the neighboring AES countries.[43]
Russia has been the primary security guarantor of the AES and has used these ties to expand cooperation in nonmilitary sectors. Russia has nearly 2,000 soldiers that are part of the Ministry of Defense–controlled Wagner Group and Africa Corps in Mali, roughly 200 Africa Corps soldiers in Burkina Faso, and at least another 100 Africa Corps soldiers in Niger.[44] The forces in Mali participate in offensive operations, while the Burkinabe and Nigerien contingents are primarily training local forces and protecting the junta heads.[45] Numerous Russian private and state-owned companies have signed several agreements and memorandums of understanding on civil nuclear cooperation, military-technical cooperation, natural resource mining, gold refinery construction, and telecommunications with the AES states since September 2023.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/africa-file-july-11-2024-sahelian-juntas-vs-ecowas-us-base-c%C3%B4te-d%E2%80%99ivoire