Attacks prompt security increase at SOMAIR Uranium Mine, Niger

ARLIT, NIGER-FEBRUARY 7, 2013: As the fifth largest uranium producer in the world, the country has become of great value to the industrialized world. This image shows a portion of one of Niger’s largest uranium mines, approximately 7 kilometers from Arlit in the remote Sahara Desert region of northwestern Niger. With the recent Islamist insurgent attacks and gas plant hostage crisis in neighboring Mali and Algeria, the French government has further increased security efforts and deployed French special forces to help protect the SOMAIR mine. (Photo DigitalGlobe via Getty Images via Getty Images)