Orano Cycle, formerly COGEMA (Compagnie générale des matières nucléaires) and Areva NC, is a French nuclear fuel company.
In 1976, Compagnie générale des mines was created based on the uranium production activities of Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA).
In 2008, Areva NC launched the Comurhex II projects for new uranium conversion plants at Malvési and [Tricastin sites in France.
Areva NC's Niger operations consist of three concessions near the town of Arlit, runs as joint ventures with (minority) stakeholders from the Nigerien government and smaller foreign investors.
Arlit was in fact built in the midst of the Sahara to support these operations, and has a large expatriate population employed by Areva and its subcontractors.
[7] On 25 July 2007, the CEO of Areva-Niger, Dominique Pin, was expelled from Niger (although he was in Paris at the time) on charges of supporting the Second Tuareg Rebellion.
[7] According to Le Canard enchaîné, this move from Seyni Oumarou's government was motivated by negotiations concerning the uranium trade agreement, which was finally renewed on 1 August 2007.
[7] Furthermore, Laouel Kader Mahamadou, who had resigned from his functions as secretary general of the Nigerien government to take a consulting job with Areva-Niger, was asked by the Nigerian DGSE to remain in Niger instead of flying to France for an integration workshop until a "clarification of the situation" could be obtained.
[8] The sporadic fighting in the uranium-producing north halted Areva's Niger mining operations in late 2007, and expansion plans were only beginning to resume in February 2008, while the insecurity and uncertainty remained.
[9] Areva is also being pressured by the opening for the first time of over 100 concessions for uranium mining in Niger, most notably to Canadian and Chinese firms.
Despite the violence in the Aïr Massif, Areva NC and the Nigerien government were by later 2008 unhindered in their exploitation of the Arlit uranium mines and in the transport of its product by highway to ports in Benin.
[11][12] While Areva officials earlier in the year admitted the security situation makes it impossible to prospect at night, the operations of the mines were by December unaffected by the Tuareg rebellion.
"Il travaillait dans un atelier de production chez Cezus, une usine du groupe nucléaire français Areva [...]."