» Mongolia Signs Uranium Deal With French Nuclear Giant   – The Diplomat

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Mongolia and France’s establishment of diplomatic relations. To start off the year of celebration, the two governments signed a major investment agreement that will both diversify Mongolia’s exports and support France’s nuclear energy sector. 

In January 2025, Mongolia and France reached a $1.6 billion investment agreement to develop Zuuvch-Ovoo uranium mine in a joint mega-project between France’s Orano Group and Mongolia’s state-owned MonAtom Group. During the signing ceremony, Mongolia’s Prime Minister Oyun-Erdene Luvsannamsrai called the investment agreement a “historic day in Mongolia-France relations.” 

The deal will increase Mongolia’s visibility in the world’s energy and minerals supply chains. The Zuuvch-Ovoo and the Dulaan-Uul deposits in Mongolia’s Dornogovi province have 90,000 tonnes of uranium deposits, and the new mining project will aim to extract 2,500 tonnes of uranium per year. 

Orano, a leading French mining company that also has businesses in Kazakhstan, has been operating in Mongolia for the last 27 years. During that period, demand for minerals, metals, and nuclear energy rose. France, as a major nuclear energy power, has been searching for reliable partners to secure its energy needs. 

Commenting on the successful partnership between Mongolia and France, Laurent Saint-Martin, France’s minister delegate for foreign trade, stated, “The agreement is worth 1.6 billion over 30 years, it is a major partnership for securing our energy supply.” 

Since locating the uranium deposit in 2010, Badrakh Energy – the joint venture formed by Orano Group and MonAtom to develop the site – has made efforts in addressing issues such as safety, security, and environmental care. The recently signed investment agreement includes commitments on investing in the local community and training and strengthening the Mongolian work force in the sector. 

In the last three years, Badrakh Energy has made major leaps to materialize the uranium partnership between Mongolia and France. Between 2021 and 2022, a pilot operation took place to use a system known as In Situ Leaching (ISL) and In Situ Recovery (ISR) to demonstrate the project’s technical, economic and environmental feasibility.

In 2023, during President Khurelsukh Ukhnaa’s state visit to Paris, a protocol agreement on the uranium deal was approved, signaling support at the highest level of government. Khurelsukh’s visit also demonstrated the growing ties between Ulaanbaatar and Paris. 

The financing of the mega-project will come in phases, and “[d]evelopment of the project is planned to take 4 years, after which the Zuuvch-Ovoo mine will go into production,” according to a press release from Orano. The company added, “With a 30-year estimated lifespan, the project represents an initial investment of around $500 million before the deposit comes on stream, and a total of $1.6 billion over the mine’s lifetime, creating 1,600 direct and indirect jobs.”

Given Mongolia’s dire need to diversify investment from third neighbors, this has been a confidence booster for the country’s mining industry specifically, and foreign investment more broadly.

However, there is some resistance among the Mongolian public, particularly concerning health concerns caused by uranium mining, and particularly the transformation of uranium into “yellowcake.” These discussions played out in outlets media as well as social media. 

However, Orano and the government of Mongolia argue that the modern technology used in the process will prevent any such harm. “The Franco-Mongolian project will apply international standards and state-of-the-art techniques in terms of safety, security and the environment, setting a benchmark for the development of the uranium industry in Mongolia,” Orano’s press release pledged. Supporters of the deal also say that nuclear energy and uranium exports can be a positive element in Mongolia’s modernization.

The successful signing of the France-Mongolia investment agreement marks a major success in the diversification of Ulaanbaatar’s economic policies and embodies the government’s efforts to attract strategic investment from third neighbors with key financial and technological capabilities. To the Mongolian government and the stakeholders, the successful implementation of the uranium mining project will be a benchmark for introducing new technology and training workers in a specialized field. Having that experience will be crucial for Mongolia’s next economic endeavors. Orano, as a leading French giant in the industry, has promised an equal and healthy business partnership. 

“Two decades ago, Orano and Mongolia have initiated the first steps to jointly develop world-class uranium deposits in Mongolia’s Dornogobi province,” Claude Imauven, the chairman of Orano’s Board of Directors, told The Diplomat. “…[I]t made me proud and honored, as the chairman of the board of Orano, to see Mongolia’s Great State Khural expressing its support to what has become the project of an ambitious long-term partnership and a major FDI in Mongolia.” 

Emphasizing the strategic importance of energy supply chains, Imauven added, “Based on shared benefits, the highest technological and environmental standards, and on human skills development, this project illustrates Orano’s values and mining capabilities as well as it reflects France’s and Mongolia’s will to further enhance their bilateral relationship in a new sector of cooperation.”

To Mongolia, its landlocked position has always posed challenges, including when searching for a third neighbor as an export partner. Mongolian exports have to traverse the territory of either China or Russia to reach any other destination in the world. To overcome these challenges, Mongolia’s government policies have relied on having strong bilateral relations with Moscow and Beijing, which is why Ulaanbaatar sealed comprehensive strategic partnerships with both countries. 

France, as Mongolia’s third neighbor, has been investing in cultural diplomacy and people-to-people exchanges, and the uranium deal is a major benchmark. The successful implementation of the deal will make Mongolia one of the leading uranium exporters in the world. Currently, Kazakhstan, Canada, and Namibia are the top global producers of uranium. If the Zuuvch-Ovoo project unfolds as planned, Mongolia would leapfrog into the top five.