Areva in uranium drive to tap nuclear boom
NO ACQUISITION TABOO
Rising prices have made the business a "profitable" one with "very attractive prospects" for Areva, which will dedicate "extremely significant" financial resources to develop it, Montessus said, declining to give figures.
Areva is prowling for acquisitions, smaller or bigger than UraMin, which the company bought for $2.5 billion last year -- scooping up the Canadian junior's uranium deposits identified in South Africa, Namibia and the Central African Republic.
"We have no taboo on this. The uranium market is promising and Areva wants to play a major role at this end of the nuclear power cycle so we're open to all opportunities, even significant ones," Montessus said.
"We're looking at companies with projects that will come on stream in 2020, and others that are already in production or will be so in the next few years," he said, adding there were only a handful of targets that could start production soon.
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Areva is also investing 1 billion euros to launch mining at Niger's Imouraren site, and will spend another 1 to 1.5 billion euros in two other mining projects in Namibia and South Africa.
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These new projects, along with sites already in production in Niger, Canada and Kazakhstan, will help double Areva's uranium output to 12,000 tonnes by 2012 -- a quarter of the world's total production -- from 6,000 tonnes at end-2007.
Projects in the Central African Republic, Gabon, Mongolia, Australia, Quebec and Jordan should ensure the group's production beyond 2020, Montessus said.
"We're trying to have a diversified production portfolio. Geographically, we can't put all our eggs in the same basket ... The UraMin acquisition was a way of diversifying in Africa, of not being in just one country so that whatever the geopolitical or natural events, we guarantee supply," he said.
Before the UraMin deal, Areva was mainly present in Niger, where its relations were strained last year after the government accused the French company of supporting insurgents. Areva, which has denied the charge, finally renewed a uranium deal with Niger in January, agreeing to a 50-percent price increase.
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