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Protesters In Niger Want French Nuclear Company To Pay More Tax

Protesters In Niger Want French Nuclear Company To Pay More Tax

The citizens of Niger want a French nuclear firm pay more taxes. More than 1,000 protesters marched to the offices of Areva in Niger’s capital Niamey recently to demand that the company pay more in taxes, reports Reuters.

but protest organizers say it was as many as 2,000 people who took part in the march, which happened as state-controlled Areva was in negotiations with President Mahamadou Issofou’s government over new 10-year contracts for its two mines in Niger.

“Niger wants to increase the royalty tax for uranium from 5.5 percent of sales to as much as 12 percent, depending on profits, in accordance with a 2006 mining law,” reports Reuters.

But according to Areva, this would make its mines unprofitable.

“Our 2010 constitution gives the Niger people exclusive ownership of natural resources,” said Ali Idrissa, coordinator of transparency campaigner ROTAB, which organized the protest.

“It is not down to a company to choose its own tax regime,” he said.

The current 10-year contracts for Areva’s Somair and Cominak mines, near the northern town of Arlit, expire on December 31. Since the parties are still in talks, sources say the contracts would be extended for up to three months.

Although Niger is the world’s fourth-largest producer of uranium, it ranks bottom of the U.N. global development index. And it accounts for just over one third of Areva’s uranium production.

Areva has been mining in the former French colony for more than four decades and owns around two-thirds of the Somair mine, which produced just over 3,000 tons of yellowcake in 2012, and around 34 percent of the smaller Cominak mine.