THE SECURITY RISK OF URANIUM PRODUCTION AND REFINEMENT
A coup in Niger? Who really cares about an insignificant Central African country, anyway? Well, take a closer look:
Here is the deal:
If Niger falls into the Russian orbit, the world would depend even more on Moscow – and its clients — for atomic energy. Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, two former Soviet republics, are among the world’s top uranium producers, accounting for about 50% of the world’s mined supply. Add Russia and Niger to that, and the share jumps to just above 60%.
Uranium is only the beginning of what’s called the nuclear fuel cycle. While Russia is also the world’s sixth-largest uranium miner, its real power lies elsewhere in that cycle: the transformation of the commodity into usable atomic fuel rods for civil reactors via so-called conversion and enrichment.
Russia accounts for nearly 45% of the global market for uranium conversion and enrichment, according to data from the World Nuclear Association. It’s a stranglehold that has created what US officials recently called a “strategic vulnerability” that’s “unsustainable.” About a third of all the enriched uranium consumed last year by US utilities came from Russia, at a cost of nearly $1 billion paid to a company directly controlled by the Kremlin. More than a year since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Washington hasn’t banned imports of Russian nuclear fuel.
It was rather amusing to witness Macron attempting to placate African leaders (under effective French control via their central bank policies and age old agreements), only to be berated by African leaders. Kenya’s William Ruto bluntly told Macron: “You are not hearing us!”
This is much more than simply some insignificant little impoverished African nation giving the middle finger to their monetary masters. This is about the end of Western colonialism.
Here’s the problem…
Ukraine is not going to plan at all. Now, Niger split… and instead of ECOWAS coming to re-implement Western puppets, they were warned by Russia and China not to intervene… and they haven’t. You know why they haven’t heeded the call of their Western colonial masters? Because they’ve been watching exactly how well that’s playing out for the average Ukrainian. With an estimated 350,000 dead and it being plainly evident for all to see that Russia is winning substantively, the appetite to be another Ukraine but on African soil looks about as appealing as gnawing your own hand off.
What this means is really something we’ve discussed and promised many times here over the years. That the global South will be fought over… and ultimately it will likely fall mostly into the warm embrace of the BRICS. This coming turmoil is bound to create supply disruptions and some wonderful investment opportunities for a world that is changing rapidly in front of us and will almost certainly within a decade look nothing like that which we’ve become accustomed to.
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- Chris MacIntosh
Capitalist Exploits | Glenorchy Capital Macro fund | Subscribe to Insider | Rebel Capitalist Pro
