Orano looks to Mongolia as new source for uranium

By Forrest Crellin

PARIS (Reuters) - French nuclear fuels company Orano is looking to increase output of uranium from new mines in Mongolia and elsewhere to meet rising demand from the nuclear power industry and offset production from its stalled projects in Niger, said CEO Nicolas Maes.

State-owned Orano has had problems exporting uranium from its mines in Niger since the country was taken over by a military junta in 2023 and said late last year it had lost control of its majority-owned projects there.

In January, it signed a preliminary agreement with Mongolia to develop the Zuuvch Ovoo mining project with production expected to start in four years and potential output of 2,600 metric tons a year by 2044.

The company is also considering revisiting operations in Namibia to see what else can be mined, Maes told journalists, with estimated uranium deposits of around 18,000 tons which could be stretched over 18 years.

"We have considerably developed this diversification and that makes us much stronger with regard to geopolitical risk," he said.

Demand for uranium is set to rise as countries build new nuclear reactors to meet growing demand for clean energy.

Major nuclear power producers like the U.S. are also trying to wean themselves off supplies from Russia, which produces 40% of the world's enriched uranium.

Orano launched arbitration proceedings in Niger late last year after the seizure of its majority-owned Somair mine by the government.

Around 1,000 metric tons of uranium produced at the mine, worth around 250 million euros ($261 million), cannot be shipped out of the country.

Canada is the source for about 5,000 of the 8,000 metric tons that the company mines annually.

"We can eventually be independent from Niger," Maes said.

Orano reported 2024 revenues of 5.9 billion euros on Wednesday, up 23% on the prior year, largely due to a 1 billion euro waste recycling contract with Japanese utilities.

Revenues for 2025 are expected to be close to 5 billion euros, the company said.

The CEO also said plans for a cathode material plant to supply gigafactories in a joint venture with Chinese company XTC New Energy could be delayed.

"We need to be very precise with our business plan and take into account slow development of batteries in Europe. We will need to make investments at the right time so that we are not ahead of the market," Maes told analysts at a briefing.

($1 = 0.9564 euros) (This story has been corrected to say that the plans are for 'a cathode material plant to supply gigafactories,' not 'an electric vehicle battery plant,' in paragraph 14)

(Reporting by Forrest Crellin; Editing by Jane Merriman, Philippa Fletcher, Elaine Hardcastle)