Uranium mining in France

Having made the choice to become a nuclear power, both civil and military, France set out in the 1940s to ensure its self-sufficiency in uranium.

France's richest deposits contain between one and five kilograms of uranium per tonne of ore, but under difficult operating conditions (underground mines) and in the face of sometimes strong local opposition.

In France, mining began just after the Second World War, when General de Gaulle created the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique on October 18, 1945.

Despite makeshift resources and meagre budgets,[2] he quickly launched prospecting commandos in France (Lachaux, Saint-Symphorien-de-Marmagne, Grury, Limousin), Madagascar, Côte d'Ivoire and French Equatorial Africa.

[2] On December 2, 1945, the CEA Prospecting School was created within the Natural History Museum, and in 1955, at La Crouzille, it became CIPRA.

Its arrival triggers a vigorous resumption of overseas research: the CEA puts the brakes on, then stops Morocco, but goes to the Sahara : Adrar des Ifoghas, Aïr, Hoggar, Tibesti.

At the end of December 1956, the CEA discovered the "Mounana showing" in Gabon, which yielded a "magnificent truffle" of 5,000 tonnes of uranium.

[3]: 194  The other cartel members were Australia, South Africa, and Rio Tinto Zinc Ltd.[3]: 194  It was formed by the major non-United States uranium producers to mitigate the impacts of US policy on the uranium market; to do so, the cartel engaged in bid rigging, price fixing, and market sharing.

Plants for extracting and concentrating uranium from ore, all associated with a mine, were located at: Summary treatment (leaching on landscaped areas) has been carried out at nine other sites.