Tanzania's stalled $1bn uranium project Mkuju River gains momentum after talks with Russian partners
Tanzania’s long-delayed Mkuju River uranium project has gained renewed political and investment momentum following President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s visit to Russia, with officials signalling that implementation is moving closer to full-scale development.
The project, which has been stalled for more than a decade, is being developed in Tanzania's Ruvuma region by Mantra Tanzania Limited, a subsidiary of Uranium One Group, which is wholly owned by Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom.
Uranium One was formerly a publicly traded Canadian uranium company, but it was acquired by Rosatom through its subsidiary Atomredmetzoloto (ARMZ) and taken private in 2013. According to the company, Mkuju River is a “world-class uranium development project” with the Nyota deposit among the largest uranium projects globally with a resource reserve of 152 million tonnes of ore.
Last year, Hassan signed a deal with Rosatom to build a $400mn uranium processing plant as part of a $1.2bn, 20-year plan to extract and process 300,000 tonnes of Tanzania’s massive reserves.
The newly revived Mkuju River project was effectively put on hold after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear accident triggered a prolonged downturn in uranium prices, making many planned uranium developments commercially unviable.
Improving uranium market fundamentals and renewed global interest in nuclear power, including across Africa, have since revived investor interest in the project.
Speaking to The Citizen, Minister for Minerals Anthony Mavunde said talks held in Moscow reinforced commitments between Tanzanian and Russian stakeholders involved in the project, which is central to the East African country’s ambitions to become a significant uranium producer.
“The visit has added significant momentum to the project,” the minister said, adding that key preparatory stages were already complete and that implementation was expected to accelerate.
Mantra Tanzania has previously commissioned a pilot uranium-processing facility to test extraction technology and support the design of the main industrial plant. The company has also issued tenders for infrastructure works at the site.
"Rosatom offers its cutting-edge uranium processing technologies to develop the distinctive geological potential of Tanzania. As with all our partners, we intend to advance cooperation with the country on the basis of equality and mutual understanding," Alexey Likhachev, Director General of Rosatom, said in a statement in July 2025.
"In doing so, Rosatom consistently adheres to the principles of sustainable development while strictly upholding high environmental and social standards. We are delighted to assist Tanzania in taking a pivotal step toward integrating into the global nuclear energy landscape."
Financing discussions are ongoing with Russian and Tanzanian lenders as developers seek capital for construction. Questions remain over long-term funding as the project’s special mining licence approaches expiry in 2028. Officials say renewal is possible under existing legal provisions.
As IntelliNews reported, Tanzania and Russia in June also agreed to expand cooperation in geological research, technical training and mining capacity building, building on long-standing Soviet-era ties.
Tanzania’s renewed focus on uranium comes amid a global shift towards low-emission energy sources, with the International Atomic Energy Agency recognising the country’s development potential and the World Nuclear Association listing it among countries with viable uranium resources.
According to project feasibility studies, Mkuju River could produce more than 4,000 tonnes of uranium annually, potentially positioning Tanzania as one of Africa’s leading producers.
Africa is an important source of uranium for the global nuclear industry, with mines in Namibia, Niger and South Africa accounting for about 14% of world uranium production, according to the World Nuclear Association.
Namibia remains the continent's largest producer, producing 8,000 tonnes annually, and the world's third-largest uranium supplier after Kazakhstan and Canada.
New uranium projects advance across the continent
Meanwhile, Aura Energy (ASX: AEE, AIM: AURA) is targeting a final investment decision (FID) for its Tiris uranium project in Mauritania by the end of 2026 after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with a “major international nuclear utility” and advancing multiple funding options.
The Australian miner said in an update on June 2 that the non-binding MOU covers potential investment, uranium offtake and technical collaboration linked to the Tiris project, which would become Mauritania’s first uranium mine and the country’s first new mine in two decades.
Canada-based uranium developer Global Atomic Corporation (TSX: GLO, OTCQX: GLATF, FRANKFURT: G12) said last month it had secured renewed political backing from Niger’s military-led government for the Dasa uranium project, as the West African state seeks to strengthen mining investment and expand trade links following its post-coup diplomatic realignment.
Global Atomic said on May 26 that members of its executive team, led by chief executive Stephen Roman, met Niger President General Abdourahamane Tiani, Prime Minister Ali Lamine Zeine and Mines Minister Ousmane Abarchi during a visit to Niamey and the Dasa project site.
Niger's uranium mining sector had historically been dominated by French nuclear fuel company Orano S.A. (EPA: ORA), formerly Areva. But the country has continued to reposition its mining and foreign investment relationships since a July 2023 military coup, which triggered tensions with Western governments and regional bloc ECOWAS.
In December 2025, a Memorandum of Cooperation was signed between the Nigerien state company Timersoi National Uranium Company (TNUC) and Uranium One, intended to develop Russian cooperation in uranium mining. Under this partnership, the parties plan to obtain the necessary permits, conduct geological exploration of prospective deposits, and ultimately establish new uranium mining operations at those sites.
Issoufou Tsalhatou, Secretary General of TNUC, stated: "Niger has large-scale plans for developing its uranium mineral resource base and is interested in attracting Russian partners who have reference experience and competencies in managing mining projects based on safety principles. This approach establishes a solid foundation for the successful implementation of projects to develop the country's strategic resources."
Nuclear expansion underpins uranium demand outlook
Egypt's El Dabaa nuclear project, being built by Russia's Rosatom, is expected to become Africa's second operational nuclear power programme and reflects broader interest in nuclear energy as a low-carbon source of baseload electricity. This trend has contributed to stronger long-term demand expectations for uranium and renewed interest in new mining projects such as Mkuju River.
The renewed investment push comes as utilities in Europe, Asia and North America seek to secure future uranium supply outside traditional markets following geopolitical disruptions and tightening global inventories. Uranium prices have strengthened sharply since 2021, supporting new project development across Africa’s mining sector.
Spot uranium prices climbed from below $30 per pound in 2020 to above $100/lb in early 2024 — the highest levels in more than 15 years — before easing back into the $70–80/lb range during 2025 and 2026. The rally has been driven by growing reactor demand, supply disruptions in major producing countries such as Niger and Kazakhstan, and increased long-term contracting activity by utilities seeking to secure future fuel supply.
Surviving in a resource-scarce island city-state demands pragmatic realism. For Singapore, energy security on the densely populated island city-state has always been an issue.
And as revealed in a recent report by The Straits Times, Singapore has been looking long and hard into energy sources the island can still explore.
In a regulatory and technical milestone revealed in the same report, a recent study conducted by Singaporean authorities in collaboration with Swedish nuclear pioneer SKB International, has concluded that no major technical showstoppers would prevent the republic from safely storing high-level radioactive waste deep down and within its borders.
This research was originally commissioned back in 2023 by the Energy Market Authority (EMA) and the National Environment Agency (NEA), and the findings point to a calculated step forward. The data in the report backs a policy shift with the Singaporean government confirming that it will undergo a comprehensive country assessment by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), in 2027. This assessment will have 19 critical operational parameters that will officially determine the nation’s capability to safely deploy nuclear reactors by as early as 2040.
The Olympic pool
For decades, the primary psychological and logistical barrier to nuclear adoption in Singapore has been a simple question of geometry: where do you put the waste on such a small island. The SKB International study directly addresses this question by breaking down the actual physical footprint of nuclear byproducts into a stark, highly humanised baseline comparison.
A standard 1-gigawatt (1GW) conventional large-scale reactor capable of powering roughly 700,000 homes produces approximately 370,000 litres of nuclear waste per year. To the average citizen, that volume sounds staggering. In reality, it fills just one-seventh (14.2%) of a single Olympic-sized swimming pool.
When placed in the context of a national landfill, the space constraints dissolve further. Singapore’s active Semakau Landfill has a volumetric capacity exceeding that of 11,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Only 5% of that annual nuclear byproduct is classified as high-level waste, such as spent uranium fuel rods containing plutonium-239, which carries a 240,000-year radiation decay timeline.
And given that the study verified that these compact waste isolation frameworks are fully compatible with Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), the advanced, lower-capacity systems (up to 300MW) that Singapore is actively monitoring for urban deployment, by translating complex nuclear physics into manageable spatial dimensions, the report shifts the domestic debate from a structural impossibility to a question of strict technical execution.
Granite shield
The geological foundation of Singapore’s nuclear ambitions lies right underneath its urban sprawl. Mark Lim, Chairman of the IEEE Nuclear and Plasma Sciences Society’s Singapore chapter, confirmed via The Straits Times that the city-state is uniquely positioned due to its well-characterised, remarkably stable bedrock. The central core of the island is anchored by the Bukit Timah granite formation, which stretches from Woodlands and Sembawang down through Bukit Batok, complemented by massive granite reserves on Pulau Ubin.
This specific granite is an exceptional natural vault. It is hard, dense, and highly impermeable, qualities that naturally block groundwater, and prevent any potential radionuclide migration. However, the EMA has urged strict caution. Because the SKB study was an initial desktop review, the state must now transition to intensive, physical on-site field surveys. Future exploratory drilling must prove that target granite sectors are completely unfractured and free of minor fault lines. In deep borehole storage, even a microscopic fracture path could allow groundwater to interact with containment canisters, making field verification the ultimate technical hurdle.
Navigating the psychology of density
Yet while the engineering parameters might look promising, nuclear energy specialists stress that the steepest challenge facing the Cabinet is not geological, but social. Matthew Chew, nuclear competency and strategy lead at engineering consultancy HY, pointed out in The Straits Times that Finland’s Onkalo repository, the world’s first operational deep granite tomb, set to go live later this year, took four decades of continuous public engagement, site selection disputes, and legislative ratifications to materialise. Finland succeeded because it built deep institutional trust with its population over generations.
Given Singapore’s extreme population density, introducing radioactive storage sites will require an unprecedented, highly transparent public education campaign. To mitigate localised anxieties and "Not In My Backyard" (NIMBY) types, early infrastructure designs suggest that any future disposal facility would likely be placed completely away from high-density residential zones. Instead, the repositories would be carved deep beneath less-developed state land sectors or hidden under a smaller but dedicated offshore island.
This careful management of information, holding onto the 2023 SKB findings until aligning them with the upcoming 2027 IAEA milestone, demonstrates the Singaporean government's signature risk-mitigation strategy. As the nation prepares to come under IEA scrutiny next year, the administration isn't just preparing a technical defence of its granite; it is beginning the delicate process of proving to global inspectors and its own citizens that a modern, high-tech city-state can safely master the atom.
China’s Nuclear Power Capacity Has Nearly Doubled Since 2016 – Analysis
By EIA
From 2016 to 2024, China’s nuclear generation capacity increased 76% (24 GW), based on our International Energy Statistics (IES) data. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s Power Reactor Information System (PRIS), China added an additional 1.1 GW of nuclear power capacity in 2025 and 2.2 GW in 2026 (through May). China is continuing to build out its nuclear generating capacity and has 36 reactors under construction, accounting for more than 49% of total world nuclear construction, according to PRIS.
China’s nuclear fleet is concentrated near population centers in the eastern part of the country, along the Pacific Ocean coastline from the Liaoning province in the north to the Hainan province in the south. According to IAEA’s PRIS, China’s existing nuclear fleet mostly consists of pressurized water reactors.
As of May 2026, China had 60 operational reactors with 58.7 GW of total capacity installed at 18 different sites. China has also implemented strategies to help rapidly expand its nuclear power plant fleet.
Nuclear projects in China use a standardized project management approach for design, licensing, and construction for multiple reactor technologies. Reactors are built in batches of 6 to 10 reactors to take advantage of economies of scale. China is also building up a nuclear supply chain with a focus on domestic manufacturing of the main plant components to decrease reliance on foreign nuclear vendors.
Additionally, China’s average build time for nuclear power plants is below the global average. According to the World Nuclear Industry Status Report, 2022 the average build time for a nuclear power plant in China between 2012 and 2021 was six years, compared with a global average construction time of about nine years. More recent reporting in 2024 similarly indicates that Chinese firms built reactors both inside and outside of China in five to seven years.
China started construction of six new reactors in 2025 and two new reactors, Xuwei-1 and Taipingling-4 in 2026 through May. China has also commissioned two new units so far in 2026: Sanao-1 and Taipingling-1. In total, China has 36 reactors under construction across 19 sites which will add about 38.9 GW of additional capacity.
China is building its first small modular reactor (SMR), the Linglong-1, a domestically designed 100 MWe pressurized water reactor that can be used for power generation, water desalination, and district heating. The project is intended to demonstrate commercial operation and is expected to start operation in the first half of 2026. The Linglong-1 uses the ACP100 SMR design, a modular design, allowing certain components to be built in a factory and installed onsite.
- Principal contributors: Slade Johnson, Jonathan Russo
- Source: This article was published by EIA
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