Emmanuel Macron, who was the first French president to visit Mongolia in May, received his counterpart Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh on Thursday October 12 during a visit which made it possible to unblock a major agreement with a view to exploitation of a major uranium mine by the French company Orano.
In May in Ulaanbaatar, during an interview in the presidential yurt, Emmanuel Macron defended the cause of the French nuclear group Orano, already present in the country and candidate for the extraction of what is potentially one of the mines largest uranium mines in the world.
Despite “the return of geopolitical crises” in the world, “we managed to build a privileged partnership throughout the year”, “based on the strengthening of sovereignty and the same attachment to universal values and democracy” , the French president welcomed on Thursday.
“Diversification strategy”
“This new stage” will “take the form of projects which aim to jointly exploit the resources identified on Mongolian territory, in particular the critical metals at the heart of the energy transition”, he added, promising “strict respect of the best environmental and social standards”.
Under the eyes of the two presidents, Orano and the Mongolian government therefore signed a protocol with a view to exploiting the Zuuvch Ovoo mine, in the southwest of Mongolia – prior to a formal investment agreement expected by the end of the year.
The former Areva, a specialist in nuclear fuel, welcomed the rise of Mongolia, “in a context of strong needs for uranium over the coming decades”, to produce low-carbon energy. This project is part of “the strategy of diversifying the group’s mining activities”, said Claude Imauven, chairman of the board of directors of Orano, whose subsidiary Somaïr had to cease its production of mineral concentrate, in a press release. uranium in Niger after the military coup at the end of July.
Project “LiMongolia”
Another agreement was reached on Thursday: the French Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) signed a letter of intent for the “LiMongolia” project. “This is a preliminary pre-exploration agreement over a period of six months, for the creation by next spring of mining predictivity maps based on satellite images, in the field of lithium,” explained Jean- Claude Guillaneau, head of international partnerships at BRGM, mentioning “a basin of several thousand square kilometers south of Ulaanbaatar”. A first step, according to the Elysée, towards possible joint exploitation.
The French presidency assures that it wants to “strengthen” its partnership to give Mongolia “the means to benefit from greater strategic sovereignty” in the face of its “two extremely powerful neighbors”, led by authoritarian governments.
“Mongolia considers France as its third neighbor and a reliable partner in Europe,” Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh launched Thursday, referring to the name of its strategy aimed at establishing close ties with capitals other than Beijing and Moscow.
His visit is also marked by culture: the Mongolian president is due to inaugurate an exhibition on Friday in Nantes dedicated to Genghis Khan, the founder of the Mongolian empire. Emmanuel Macron visited the Genghis Khan museum during his visit to Ulaanbaatar.