The United States has approved up to $414 million in financing for a major uranium project in Niger, a move that reconnects Washington with a strategically important mining sector two years after U.S. troops left the country.
The financing is aimed at Global Atomic’s Dasa project, which the Canadian company describes as one of Africa’s highest-grade uranium deposits. Reuters reported that the package is part of a wider U.S. effort to diversify supplies of critical minerals and nuclear fuel while rebuilding relations with Niger after the 2023 military coup.
Energy security meets diplomacy
Uranium has become more strategically important as countries extend the lives of nuclear reactors and plan new capacity. Niger has long been a major producer, but political upheaval has altered the role of traditional Western partners and opened the door to new commercial and diplomatic competition.
The project still faces material risks. Security threats remain serious in parts of Niger, while export logistics are complicated by regional instability. Global Atomic has been examining alternative routes, including through Algeria, to move future output.
For Washington, the investment is both commercial and geopolitical: it could strengthen access to nuclear-fuel resources while testing whether economic engagement can rebuild influence in a country where relations deteriorated sharply after the coup.
