PARIS (Reuters) – Contracts allowing in particular to deepen the search for rare metals such as uranium and lithium were signed on Thursday at the Elysée between French President Emmanuel Macron and his Mongolian counterpart, Ukhnaagiin Khürelsükh.
France is contributing 400,000 euros to a project involving the Bureau of Geological and Mining Research (BRGM) and the Mongolian National Geological Survey in order to explore a basin potentially rich in lithium in the Asian country.
This material is essential for electric batteries of which France will begin production as part of its transition to a “greener” industry.
The French group Orano and Mongolian partners will also participate in the exploitation of a uranium deposit within the Badrakh Energy joint venture which could represent 4% of global supplies, according to French officials.
This collaboration will be all the more useful to France as Paris has been at odds with Niger since this summer’s coup in the African country which until now provided it with part of the uranium essential to the functioning of its nuclear power plants.
France, via Thales Alenia Space, and Mongolia are also working on a satellite project aimed at improving connectivity in the country of 3.3 million inhabitants located between China and Russia.
The Mongolian president’s state visit comes a few months after Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Ulaanbaatar in May.
After a concert of traditional Mongolian music in Versailles and a state dinner at the Elysée, the Mongolian president will travel to Nantes on Friday to inaugurate an exhibition on Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongolian Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries.
(Report by Elizabeth Pineau with Michel Rose, edited by Blandine Hénault)
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