L’Ouzbékistan développe des matériaux rares grâce à des méthodes d’extraction plus écologiques

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L’Ouzbékistan développe des matériaux rares grâce à des méthodes d’extraction plus écologiques

L’Ouzbékistan augmente ses exportations minières, notamment d’uranium, pour répondre à la demande mondiale en matériaux rares.

En partenariat avec Agency of Information and Mass Communications of Uzbekistan

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00:00Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada

00:30Exploring or developing 487 mineral deposits, with foreign investors involved in 27 projects

00:38being implemented this year. By 2030, annual exports of mining products will be worth 2.3

00:46billion euros, including uranium used for nuclear energy, which last year made up 730

00:54million euros of exports. We've been to a new uranium project to find out more.

01:05Deep in the desert of Uzbekistan's Navoy region, rich reserves of uranium lie hidden in the

01:14ground. Valuable resources that are being tapped by a joint French-Uzbek venture.

01:20We have two licenses, South Gengeldi, North Gengeldi. South Gengeldi is ready for production.

01:27North Gengeldi, you can see here, is under exploration. It will come as well to production

01:32within a few years.

01:37Exploration means drilling and probing, and then extracting cylindrical-shaped samples

01:44or calls to isolate the uranium.

01:51It's difficult to see because uranium is very small. After we take the sampling, we will

01:55send it to the laboratory. If we find a good result, it's good for our team and our company.

02:01At least 10,000 tonnes of uranium is expected to be extracted as part of the overall project,

02:12and it will be mined using a special technique called in-situ leaching.

02:20In-situ leaching is one of the environmentally friendly methods because it does not require

02:25open-pit. We use wells and we pour into the ore body acidic or alkaline solutions which dissolve

02:35uranium and then they are brought back to the surface and then processed.

02:40in-situ leaching.

02:43Uzbekistan's Novoi Uran, a state-owned mining enterprise, is working with the French company,

02:49Arano, as part of the joint venture. There's also a Japanese partner, the Otochu Corporation,

02:57which has a minority stake in the project.

03:02Uzbekistan is one of the major players in uranium. They are a huge producer of uranium worldwide.

03:07They produce uranium for more than 60 years, so it is an important country in uranium production.

03:13It was interesting for Arano to come and to join this country.

03:17The idea is to stay on the long term in Uzbekistan to develop this partnership.

03:22Global demand for green energy is increasing and Uzbekistan is well positioned as a reliable partner.

03:30We believe that the international best practices which we apply in geology up to the final production

03:36they comply with the demands of investors and we hope that there will be more investors

03:45which are interested in this uranium production.

03:49Let's speak now to Roman Balkulchuk from the Norwegian Institute of International Relations, who's in Oslo.

04:01How do you think Uzbekistan can sustainably develop this sector?

04:04I know that the government is currently building partnerships with different international organizations

04:09with respect to adopting high environmental standards.

04:13We know how widespread is the use of the OECD standards when it comes to due diligence

04:18and also safety standards in mining and processing of critical materials.

04:24What do you think it all means for Europe's green energy transition?

04:26We know that, well, for the EU, for its grid deal plans, the supply of critical materials from Uzbekistan can be very important

04:34because those metals and minerals are used in the production of solar panels, wind turbines, storage facilities, batteries,

04:41also electric cars. So I believe that partnership would be quite beneficial for both sides.

04:46Roman, thank you for joining us.

04:47Roman, thank you for joining us.

04:48Well, that's all we have time for in this edition, but there's more business news at Euronews.com.

04:54Thanks for watching and bye for now.

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