Mongolia has reached a preliminary agreement with France’s Orano to develop a long-expected uranium mining project worth $1.6bn (€1.5bn).
A draft agreement for the deal was submitted to the Mongolian parliament for preliminary discussion, the Mongolian government said on 27 December.
It said the project, in Dornogovi province in the southeast of Mongolia, would be the first-ever Mongolia-France uranium project.
The project will have an initial investment of $500m and a total investment of $1.6bn. A preparatory phase will run to 2027 with first production expected in 2028, the government said. Peak production will hit 2,600 metric tonnes in 2044, it added.