The
Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK) was a
BelgianThe Kingdom of Belgium is a country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters, as well as those of other major international organizations, including NATO...
mining company, once operating in
KatangaKatanga is a southern province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province is to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009. Its regional capital is Lubumbashi...
, in what is now the
Democratic Republic of the CongoThe Democratic Republic of the Congo is a country located in Central Africa, with a small length of Atlantic coastline. It is the third largest country in Africa...
(formerly,
Congo Free StateThe Congo Free State was a corporate state privately controlled by Leopold II, King of the Belgians through a dummy non-governmental organization, the Association Internationale Africaine. Leopold was the sole shareholder and chairman, exploiting the state for rubber, copper and other minerals in...
, from 1908,
Belgian CongoThe Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between King Leopold II's formal relinquishment of personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November 1908, and the dawn of Congolese independence on 30 June 1960.-Background: 1884-1908:Until the later...
, from 1972,
ZaireThe Republic of Zaire was the name of the present Democratic Republic of the Congo between 27 October 1971, and 17 May 1997. The name of Zaire derives from the , itself an adaptation of the Kongo word nzere or nzadi, or "the river that swallows all rivers".Known as the Belgian Congo up until its...
). It was created on October 28, 1906, as a result of a merger of a company created by
Léopold IILeopold II was King of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne in 1865 and remained king until his death. He was the brother of Empress Carlota of Mexico and first cousin to Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom...
and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd (a British company created by
Robert Williams- United Kingdom :*Sir Robert Williams, 2nd Baronet , Member of Parliament for Carnarvonshire 1656-1658 and for Carnarvon Boroughs 1659*Robert Williams - United Kingdom :*Sir Robert Williams, 2nd Baronet (c. 1627-1678), Member of Parliament for Carnarvonshire 1656-1658 and for Carnarvon Boroughs...
, which started prospecting for minerals in 1899, and was granted mining concessions in 1900), in order to exploit the mineral wealth of Katanga. It was owned jointly by the
Société Générale de BelgiqueThe Société Générale de Belgique was one of the largest companies that ever existed in Belgium. It was founded in 1822 by William I, and existed until 2003, when its then sole shareholder, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, merged it with Tractebel to form Suez-Tractebel.-History:As part of the terms of the...
, Belgium's largest holding company (which controlled 70% of the Congolese economy) and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd. Some of the remains of the UMHK form part of the present day company
UmicoreUmicore N.V. is a Belgian-based multinational materials technology company, headquartered in Brussels. Formed in 1989 by the merger of four companies in the mining and smelting industries, Umicore has since reshaped itself into a more technology-focused business encompassing such areas as the...
.
Copper's travail
During its years of operation, the UMHK greatly contributed to the wealth of Belgium, and, to a lesser extent, Katanga — which developed more than the surrounding regions without similar mineral resources. The company could be considered harshly capitalistic, but its motto at the time, best expressing their opinion of development was "good health, good spirits, and high productivity." Possibly it was because of this approach, and in order to keep and placate the workforce, that the Union introduced an accident compensation scheme as early as 1928 along with full free
health careHealth care , is the treatment and management of illness, and the preservation of health through services offered by the medical, dental, complementary and alternative medicine, pharmaceutical, clinical laboratory sciences , nursing, and allied health professions...
, housing and a very large wage.) Katanga's mineral wealth led to the construction of railways (including the
Benguela railwayThe Benguela railway is operated by the Caminho de Ferro de Benguela that connects the Atlantic port of Lobito, Angola, to the eastern bordertown of Luau and to the rail networks of south-eastern DR Congo, of Zambia and beyond.-Operation:...
) to connect it with the Angolan coast which took place in 1911, other rail lines connected Katanga to
Northern RhodesiaNorthern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia. Although it had features of a charter colony the territory's treaties and...
. Thereafter, mineral production, especially of copper, took off. For instance, in 1911, the Ruashi Mine, owned by the UMHK, began operation, supplying 997 metric tons of copper on its first year. By 1919, annual production had risen to 22,000 metric tons, produced by seven furnaces. In 1935, the Union was party to the World Copper Agreement . In the 1950s, Congo was the world’s fourth largest copper-producing country.
Uranium and politics
In addition to the copper for which it is known, Katanga was also rich in other minerals. The company controlled the exports of
cobaltCobalt is a hard, lustrous, gray metal, a chemical element with symbol Co and atomic number 27. Although cobalt-based colors and pigments have been used since ancient times for making jewelry and paints, and miners have long used the name kobold ore for some minerals, the free metallic cobalt was...
(the UMHK was responsible 75% of the production of which during the 1950s),
tinTin is a chemical element with the symbol Sn and atomic number 50. It is a main group metal in group 14 of the periodic table. Tin shows chemical similarity to both neighboring group 14 elements, germanium and lead, like the two possible oxidation states +2 and +4...
, uranium and
zincZinc , also known as spelter, is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...
in its mines, among the richest in the world. Henri Buttgenbach, a famous Belgian metallurgist and administrator of UMHK from 1911, described cornetite, fourmarierite, cuprosklodowskie and thoreaulite. The finding of
radiumRadium is a radioactive chemical element which has the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. Its appearance is almost pure white, but it readily oxidizes on exposure to air, turning black. Radium is an alkaline earth metal that is found in trace amounts in uranium ores. It is extremely radioactive...
deposits in Katanga at the same time eventually led to a Belgian radium-extracting industry. Johannes Franciscus Vaes, who has studied minerals coming from the UMHK, is responsible for the discovery of billietite,
masuyiteMasuyite is a uranium/lead oxide mineral with formula Pb[3O32]·3.Masuyite was first described in 1947 for an occurrence in Katanga and named to honor Belgian geologist Gustave Masuy ....
, renierite, richetite, schuilingite-(Nd), sengierite, tudtite and vandendriesscheite.
Gaston BriartGaston Briart was a Belgian geologist and mining engineer who worked and studied rock formations at Prince Léopold mine, Kipushi, Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo.The mineral Briartite, discovered in Kipushi in 1965, is named in his honour....
, after whom
BriartiteBriartite is an opaque iron-grey metallic sulfide mineral, Cu2GeS4 with traces of Ga and Sn, found as inclusions in other germanium-gallium-bearing sulfides....
is named, was a UMHK consultant.
In 1922, the UMHK built its first refinery for
uraniumUranium is a silvery-white metallic chemical element in the actinide series of the periodic table that has the symbol U and atomic number 92. Besides its 92 protons, a uranium nucleus can have between 141 and 146 neutrons. The most common uranium isotopes are U-238 and U-235 . A uranium atom has...
ore, and by 1926 had a virtual monopoly of the world uranium market (holding most of the deposits known at the time), to be broken only by the German invasion of 1940. This uranium was mostly refined at Olen, Belgium. In 1939 ,
Frédéric Joliot-CurieJean Frédéric Joliot-Curie was a French physicist and Nobel laureate.-Early years:Born in Paris, France, he was a graduate of the School of Chemistry and Physics of the city of Paris. In 1925 he became an assistant to Marie Curie, at the Radium Institute...
, head of the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
newly-established
Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueThe National Center of Scientific Research is the largest governmental research organization in France and the largest fundamental science agency in Europe....
(CNRS), arranged for the UMHK to provide his organization 5 metric tons of uranium oxide, technical assistance with the construction of a reactor and a million francs, in exchange for having all discoveries made by the CNRS patented by a syndicate, with profits shared between the CNRS and the UMHK. This uranium oxide was transferred to England before German troops entered Paris.
The United States of America obtained uranium for the atomic bomb from the Union Minière. At a meeting on 18 September 1942 between
Edgar SengierEdgar Sengier was the director of the Belgian Union Minière du Haut Katanga during World War II. Sengier is credited with giving the American government access to much of the uranium necessary for the Manhattan Project...
, head of UMHK, and
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
General
Kenneth NicholsKenneth David Nichols was the deputy to General Leslie Groves in the American project to develop the Atomic Bomb in World War II. He was a United States Army officer and an engineer...
of the
Manhattan ProjectThe Manhattan Project was the codename for a project conducted during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb. The project was led by the United States, and included scientists from Denmark, The United Kingdom and Canada...
, Nichols purchased the 1500 metric tons of uranium (mostly mined at Shinkolobwe mine, near the town of
LikasiLikasi, formerly known as Jadotville or Jadotstad, is a city in Haut-Katanga Province, in the south-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.-Demographics:Likasi has a population of around 367,000...
) the project required. This was already in the United States, and additional ore was shipped from the Congo. The mine had a "tremendously rich lode of uranium pitchblende. Nothing like it has ever again been found"; the ore was 65% uranium and even the waste piles were 20%; "after the war the MED and the AEC considered ore containing three tenths of 1 percent as a good find". Some 1200 metric tons of uranium stored at the Olen refinery were captured by the Germans in 1940, and only recovered by US troops at the end of the war.
During its heyday, the UMHK operated schools, dispensaries, hospitals and sporting establishments, and had enjoyed virtually unlimited funds with the
Banque de la Société Générale de Belgique. In 1959, Belgian profits from the Union Miniere were in excess of 3.5 billion
Belgian francThe franc was the currency of Belgium until 2002 when the euro was introduced into circulation. It was subdivided into 100 centiem , centimes or Centime .-History:...
s, and export duties paid to the Congolese government constituted 50% of the government's revenue. There were times when the Belgian colony's tax on the UMHK accounted for up to 66% of its revenues. It is reported that in 1960, the UMHK had annual sales of $200 million USD, had produced 60 percent of the uranium in the West, 73 percent of the cobalt, and 10 percent of the copper, and had in the Congo 24 affiliates including hydroelectric plants, chemical factories and railways.
This eventually came to an end. Turbulence started in 1960, with the Congolese declaration of independence. In 1961, the UMHK supported the secession of the province of Katanga from the Congo and the murder of
Patrice LumumbaPatrice Émery Lumumba was an African anti-colonial leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...
, Congo's first prime minister after Belgian colonial rule. Upon the province's secession, the Union transferred 1.25 billion Belgian francs (35 million USD) into
Moïse TshombeMoïse Kapenda Tshombe was a Congolese politician.- Biography :He was the son of a successful Congolese businessman and was born in Musumba, Congo. He received his education from an American missionary school and later trained as an accountant...
's bank account, an advance on 1960 taxes which should in fact have been paid to Lumumba's government. On December 31, 1966, the Congolese government, under dictator
Mobutu Sese SekoMobutu Sésé Seko Nkuku Ngbendu wa Za Banga , commonly known as Mobutu or Mobutu Sésé Seko , born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, became the President of Zaire after deposing Joseph Kasavubu. He remained in office for 31.5 years...
, took over the possessions and activities of the UMHK, transforming it into
GécaminesGécamines, or La Générale des Carrières et des Mines, is a state-owned mining company in the Democratic Republic of Congo . Its principal products are copper , cobalt and zinc...
(Société générale des Carrières et des Mines), a state-owned mining company. Mismanagement and failure to adopt modern standards of mining (rather than mining depletion), as well as outright theft by the dictator Mobutu, meant that mining production was greatly reduced, with production rate sinking as much as 70%. Those assets of UMHK not seized by Mobutu were absorbed by the Société Générale de Belgique, later becoming part of Union Minière (now
UmicoreUmicore N.V. is a Belgian-based multinational materials technology company, headquartered in Brussels. Formed in 1989 by the merger of four companies in the mining and smelting industries, Umicore has since reshaped itself into a more technology-focused business encompassing such areas as the...
).
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