Niger’s northern desert caps one of the world’s largest deposits of uranium, and demand for it has surged as global warming has increased interest in nuclear power...A French mining company is building the world’s largest uranium mine in northern Niger, and a Chinese state company is building another mine nearby. Uranium could infuse Niger with enough cash to catapult it out of the kind of poverty that causes one in five Niger children to die before turning 5. Or it could end in a calamitous war that leaves Niger more destitute than ever. [refers to Areva]