Foreign media reported on June 28 that Foreign relations of France's foreign affairs sources said on Wednesday that Foreign relations of France's Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna would go to Mongolia on Wednesday to promote a uranium transaction that might be worth 1 billion euros. Paris hopes that the transaction can be concluded in the autumn.
In May this year, after returning from Japan to participate in the Group of Seven (G7) summit, French President Emmanuel Macron stopped in Ulaanbaatar and said that the two countries had agreed to work together to strengthen France's energy sovereignty by supplying key metals from Mongolia.
A Foreign relations of France source told reporters before his visit to Cologne: "Mongolia has many resources, but they have not been fully developed and not all of them have been confirmed."
The source said, "There is a major project, the Orano project, aimed at mining uranium." "It is worth over 1 billion euros (1.1 billion US dollars) and can extract large amounts of uranium
The negotiations are progressing smoothly and an agreement is currently being reached, with the goal of reaching an agreement by next autumn
According to the company's website, the company and its partner Mongolian state-owned enterprise Mon Atom are collaborating with the Mongolian authorities on the investment agreement for the Zuuvch Ovoo project, which was one of the two projects for which their Badrakh Energy joint venture obtained a mining license in 2015.
Orano confirmed that the problematic project is Zuuvch Ovoo and stated in an email reply to Reuters that negotiations are ongoing and the company's goal is to develop Mongolia's first uranium mine, "adopting the highest standards in terms of health, safety, environment, and social responsibility
Orano is a major uranium producer with mines in Canada, Kazakhstan, and Niger. The company's website shows that it has been conducting exploration activities in Mongolia for over 25 years.
Nearly 80% of Mongolia's export products flow to China, but this mineral rich country is striving to expand its trade and mining relations beyond its two neighboring countries, China and Russia, and hopes to become a bridge connecting Europe and Asia.
Mongolia has a large amount of rare earth minerals, which are crucial for many high-tech manufacturing processes, such as electric vehicles, wind turbines, portable electronics, microphones, and speakers.
The diplomatic source said, "We will hold other meetings to see what we can do to identify resources and prepare for possible exploration cooperation