Gold, silicon, oil (reserves estimated at 2 billion barrels) and above all uranium, essential for both French nuclear power plants and atomic bombs. Strategic raw materials for imperialism, which needs to consolidate its domination at the expense of the countries of the South. This is the key to understanding the fibrillation provoked, in the United…
Written by
Geraldina Colotti
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Originally Published in
Gold, silicon, oil (reserves estimated at 2 billion barrels) and above all uranium, essential for both French nuclear power plants and atomic bombs. Strategic raw materials for imperialism, which needs to consolidate its domination at the expense of the countries of the South. This is the key to understanding the fibrillation provoked, in the United States and especially in the European Union, by the coup d’état in Niger. Niger is the first supplier of uranium to the EU, covering 24% of its needs. France directly controls two uranium mines, Akouta and Arlit. Akouta, the “largest subway mine in the world”, managed by a French, Japanese and Spanish joint venture 6 km from the town of Akokan, was closed in 2021, after having extracted 75 thousand tons of uranium in 43 years of activity. Behind it, it left 20 million tons of radioactive sludge, 600 unemployed and cancer-stricken workers, houses without electricity and water, and an area that would need 145 million euros to be recovered.
