Arlit is an industrial town and capital of the Arlit Department of the Agadez Region of northern-central Niger, built between the Sahara Desert and the eastern edge of the Aïr Mountains. It is 200 kilometers south by road from the border with Algeria. As of 2012, the commune had a total population of 79,725 people.
Uranium industry
Founded in 1969 following the discovery of
uranium, it has grown around the
mining industry, developed by the French government. Two large
uranium mining, at
Arlit mine and nearby
Akouta, are exploited by open top strip mining. One open-pit mine was built in 1971 by the National Mining Company of Niger,
SOMAIR.
[ Somair Company Profile.] The second open-pit mine, as well as a third underground mine, was built by the French Compagnie Minière d'Akouta (or
COMINAK).
All the ore from both is now processed and transported by a French company
Orano Cycle, a holding of the
Orano group, itself a state-owned operation of the French
Commissariat à l'énergie atomique (CEA). The system of French nuclear power generation, as well as the French nuclear weapons program, is dependent on uranium mined at Arlit.
[ France and Nuclear Energy and French Involvement in Niger , both from Pederson, Nicholas R. The French Desire for Uranium and its Effects on French Foreign Policy in Africa. Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security: Occasional Papers. PED:1. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2000)] Orano Cycle alone employs 1600 foreign nationals on the site.
[according to Le Canard Enchaîné (3 August 2005)]
In 2017, 2,116 tonnes of uranium were extracted from the Arlit mines
Boom, bust and recovery
In the late 1980s, Arlit suffered from a steep decline in world uranium prices, and the number of foreign employees in the town was cut to 700, a drop which has rebounded by the first decade of the 21st century. The value of Niger's uranium "boom" has never recovered its 1980s level, causing dislocation and suffering for the tens of thousands of Nigeriens who flocked to the
surrounding Arlit.
Anger at the results of uranium bust, along with a belief that the best jobs were going to those from southern Niger, contributed to the Tuareg Rebellion of the 1990s. As late as 2007, Tuareg nationalists have made a fairer division of profits and jobs for local people a primary demand.[ June 2007.]
On a macroeconomic scale, Arlit can be said to suffer from Dutch disease, or Dutch curse, a phenomenon where over-emphasis on one particular sector (commonly a highly sought after resource such as oil) hinders normal development of other sectors essential to an economy.
Environmental impact
The impact on the local environment of the Arlit mining industry has been criticised by African and European Non-Governmental Organisations, and
Areva NC has especially been accused of a disregard for health and environmental conditions around its operations.
[ Le dossier sur la mine d'Arlit de la CRIIRAD] The French NGO Commission for Independent Research and Information on Radioactivity has described the surface nuclear waste piles near Arlit as a danger to the area's water supply.
"Yellowcake" controversy
In the build-up to the war in Iraq there was controversy over allegations in 2003 that
Saddam Hussein was seeking to purchase uranium from Arlit.
Military base
The United States has operated a military base in Arlit since approximately 2015.
Transportation
Arlit is served by
Arlit Airport.
In popular culture
In 2005 the Beninese filmmaker, Idrissou Mora-Kpai, produced and directed the film
Arlit, deuxième Paris (Arlit, a Second Paris) about the large expatriate community in the town.
In 2007 Andersen Press published The Yellowcake Conspiracy, a novel by British children's author Stephen Davies. The novel is an espionage thriller set in and around the Arlit mine.
Geology
More than 25 uranium deposits occur within Mississippian to
Cretaceous age
. Key structural features are the Arlit Fault, and intrusions and
from 480 to 145
megaannum in age.
Climate
Arlit has a hot arid climate (
BWh under the Köppen-Geiger system.)
See also
-
Economy of Niger
-
Battle of Agadez and Arlit
External links
