Niger uranium mine closure: hundreds of jobs cut, concerns for environment Issued on: A Cominak site near the Akouta mine in Arlit, Niger AFP PHOTO PIERRE VERDY 3 min A uranium mine in the northern Niger town of Arlit is scheduled to shut down on 31 March, cutting 600 jobs, after its resources were depleted, leaving mine workers without jobs and a very small payout package, according to an official of the National Union of Mines. Advertising Read more “We have a lot of our workers who are young-- as long as there is no economic recovery in the country, that means that many of these young people will find themselves unemployed,” Niou Amadou, general secretary of the National Union of Mines, told RFI’s Gaelle Laleix.