Uranium from phosphates – Areva taps Moroccan potential

French mega-nuclear energy company Areva is leaving no stones unturned as it seeks uranium to quench the growing thirst for nuclear reactors in Asia.

WINDHOEK - 

Morocco's huge phosphorite resources, which are believed to account for over three quarters of the world's annual output, have not escaped the watchful eye of resource-hungry French nuclear giant, Areva [ARVCF.PK], as it eyes the booming Asian nuclear reactor market.

One may be forgiven for thinking that the "world leader in the design and construction of nuclear power plants and the supply of fuel, maintenance and modernisation services", as Areva describes itself on its website, is now diversifying into the manufacturing of phosphoric acid and fertilizer, but the company is actually looking into boosting its uranium supplies.

On Monday its chief executive officer, Anne Lauvergeon, and Mustafa Terrab, her counterpart from the Office Cherifien Des Phosphates (OCP), a Moroccan mining and chemical industries conglomerate, sealed an agreement that will see it extracting uranium contained in the country's phosphate rocks, which are said to be a promising source of yellowcake.

"Phosphates are a promising source of uranium, whose market is enjoying sustained growth," said Areva Monday in a statement signed by Frédéric Potelle, its Investors Relations manager.

He added, "IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) figures put Morocco's uranium resources in phosphate deposits at around six million tons, which corresponds to twice the world's resources in uranium deposits."

Areva's agreement with OCP, a driving force for that country's national economy, coincided with a state visit to Morocco by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on his first state visit abroad since being elected this year, who dished out €2 billion in civilian and military aid, top of which is assistance to construct a high-speed TGV train between the cities of Tangiers and Casablanca.

OCP, a state-owned agency formed in 1920, is solely responsible for the Benguérir, Khouribga and Youssoufia mines in central Morocco. The country's enormous measured phosphorite resources of 85,000 Mt are hosted in upper cretaceous, palaeocene and Eocene sediments, and sequences comprising clays, marls, limestones and cherts contain several phosphate-rich beds.

Mineable phosphate-rich beds range from one to three metres in thickness and grades from 22% to 28% P2O5.

Morocco produces more than 23 million tons of ore per year.

With OCP, Areva said it hopes the agreement will add an industrial dimension to their scientific cooperation, which dates back to 2005. The two entities also plan to launch a joint study into the feasibility of an industrial site producing uranium from phosphoric acid.

OCP, which is the world's largest exporter of phosphate in all forms, sells 95% of its production on external markets. As an international player, it delivers its products throughout the planet's five continents, achieving an annual turnover of 1.3 billion dollars.

Areva already has major uranium mining interests in Niger and Canada and projects in progress in Australia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.

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