Keypoints:
- DFC approves up to $414.2m for Dasa
- Financing remains subject to major conditions
- Uranium strengthens US economic engagement
THE United States has approved up to $414.2m in conditional financing for Global Atomic’s Dasa uranium project in Niger, two years after American forces completed their withdrawal from the West African country.
The approval places uranium at the centre of Washington’s expanding critical-minerals strategy in Africa, but it is not yet a completed loan. Export arrangements, mining permits, government assurances and definitive financing documents must still be resolved before funds can be released.
Canadian miner Global Atomic said on September 16 that the board of the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) had approved the proposed debt facility for Dasa, an underground uranium development in Niger’s northern Agadez region.
Financing still faces conditions
Global Atomic said entry into the DFC facility and any subsequent disbursement depend on identifying a viable route for exporting yellowcake from landlocked Niger.
The company must also secure satisfactory extensions to the project’s mining convention and mining permit, obtain assurances covering government approvals for loan repayments and negotiate a direct agreement with Niger’s government.
Definitive loan documentation must then be completed with DFC.
Global Atomic cautioned that there was no assurance all the outstanding matters would be resolved within a particular timeframe, or at all.
The final financing package is also expected to include common-share purchase warrants giving DFC rights to acquire Global Atomic shares. The terms are to be agreed before closing and remain subject to regulatory approval.
The $414.2m announcement therefore represents a major financing approval rather than a completed transfer of funds.
Washington puts minerals at centre
DFC did not publicly identify Dasa when it announced more than $8bn in board-approved investments on September 16.
Instead, the agency said it was backing a ‘critical minerals project in West Africa’, while noting that some transactions remained commercially confidential and could require further steps before commitment and closing.
DFC said its broader investment programme was intended to strengthen US economic and national-security interests, support American exports and secure critical resources and infrastructure.
Global Atomic subsequently identified Dasa and disclosed the proposed financing amount.
The Niger project fits a wider pattern examined by Africa Briefing in Washington’s expanding push for African critical minerals, with state-backed finance increasingly being deployed around resources considered strategically important.
Uranium has gained particular significance.
The US Geological Survey returned uranium to the final 2025 US critical-minerals list after the Department of Energy cited its importance to electricity generation and national security. Uranium had appeared on the 2018 list but was omitted from the 2022 version.
Dasa adds another uranium pillar
Dasa is operated through SOMIDA, which is 80 percent owned by Global Atomic and 20 percent by the Nigerien government.
Global Atomic describes Dasa as Africa’s highest-grade uranium deposit, based on its feasibility work, and says the project has a planned 23-year mine life.
Chief Executive Stephen Roman has said the company expects commercial production to begin in the second half of 2028, although that timetable remains dependent on financing and successful project execution.
The development could broaden Niger’s uranium industry as the government remains locked in a separate dispute with French nuclear group Orano over assets connected to SOMAÏR.
Orano said an ICSID tribunal in September 2025 ordered Niger not to sell, transfer or facilitate the transfer of uranium covered by the SOMAÏR dispute.
The French company later alleged that a uranium shipment left the SOMAÏR site in November 2025 despite the tribunal’s order. That remains Orano’s account in an ongoing international arbitration process.
Dasa is legally and commercially separate from the disputed SOMAÏR assets.
Economic ties follow troop withdrawal
The financing also comes two years after a major change in US–Niger security relations.
The US completed the withdrawal of its military forces and assets from Niger on September 15, 2024. The departure included personnel from Air Base 201 near Agadez, which had supported regional surveillance and counter-terrorism operations.
The withdrawal did not amount to a complete break in relations between Washington and Niamey, but it ended an important phase of military cooperation following Niger’s July 2023 coup.
If the DFC facility reaches financial close, Dasa would give Washington substantial state-backed economic exposure in the same northern region where American forces previously operated.
The proposed financing illustrates the growing role of investment, trade and strategic resources in US engagement with African governments.
Similar efforts are visible elsewhere. Kenya and the US have pursued a critical-minerals framework with an emphasis on local processing, while Nigeria is courting US investment for its minerals sector.
For African governments, growing international competition for strategic minerals is creating opportunities to demand more investment in processing, infrastructure and local value creation.
As Africa Briefing has argued in its analysis of the global minerals race, the larger development question is whether increased foreign competition can translate into more processing, value addition and economic activity within Africa.
Export route remains crucial
For Dasa, logistics remain one of the clearest obstacles.
Niger is landlocked, meaning any large-scale uranium project requires a secure and commercially viable route to international markets.
Global Atomic has explicitly made the identification of a viable yellowcake export corridor one of the conditions attached to the DFC financing.
The company must now turn board approval into a definitive agreement while resolving permitting, government and transport requirements.
If those hurdles are cleared, Dasa would become an important test of Washington’s use of development finance to secure strategically significant mineral supply chains in Africa.
For Niger, the bigger question is whether the investment can help turn uranium resources into wider economic value as the country navigates an increasingly competitive geopolitical landscape.
