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December 06, 2005

Yellowcake Niger

I've just been looking at some yellow cake. Or rather yellowcake - low-grade uranium. The director of Cominak took me around the mine (referred to affectionately as 'la zone') in his lovely air-conditioned Toyota, and even let me take photos. The Cominak mine is underground (as opposed to the open pit over at Somair) but unfortunately there was no one free to take me down there to see 'les galleries'. Today there is a problem with the Crusher so production has temporarily stopped.

I am extremely grateful to Mr Gilbert for rescuing me from the over-enthusiastic guards at the entrance to 'la zone' and for his thorough and informative tour.

Meanwhile, the FBI has reopened the investigation into the yellowcake documents, just to see if there is something they missed the first time round. Before going to 'la zone' I talked to a worker on his way home from the mine and he made various dark-sounding comments about there being something in the conspiracy theories (French involvement in getting uranium to Iraq), but I sincerely believe that he is just venting frustration at his (in his opinion) low pay.

And even if I didn't, I would certainly not say so here.

Posted by sahelsteve at December 6, 2005 04:59 PM