Canada's GoviEx Uranium gets ECA financing interest in Niger's Madaouela project

(Mining Technology, London, 3 October 2017) GoviEx Uranium has received expressions of interest from export credit agencies and project finance banks to arrange $220m of senior debt financing for the construction of the Madaouela uranium project in Niger. Conditions for the debt financing include long-term off-take contracts to be signed with nuclear utility counterparties, as well as export credit agency insurance cover being in-place, depending on the nationality of either the off-take and/or procurement counterparties. [Niger exports enough uranium to France to generate 50 per cent of the latter’s electricity supply, but ordinary Nigeriens reap little benefit from France’s control of their country’s uranium resources, with over three-fifths of the population living below the poverty line and reports of radioactive contamination of water, air and soil by multinational mining operations. Recent US press reports ask if  US troops died in Niger protecting French and Chinese uranium?]