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The Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK) is a Belgian mining company, once operating in Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly, Congo Free State, from 1908, Belgian Congo, from 1972, Zaire). It was created on October 28, 1906, as a result of a merger of a company created by Léopold II and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd (a British group created by Cecil Rhodes, 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 by the Société Générale de Belgique, Belgium's largest holding company (which controlled 70% of the Congolese economy). Capital Lubumbashi Created June 1960 Dissolved January 1963 Demonym Katangan Currency Katanga franc Katanga is the southern province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, regional capital Lubumbashi (formerly Elizabethville). ...
The Congo Free State was a kingdom privately and controversially owned by King Leopold II of Belgium that included the entire area now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. ...
1908 (MCMVIII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The Belgian Congo was the formal title of present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between King Léopold IIs formal relinquishment of personal control over the state to Belgium on 15 November, 1908, to the dawn of Congolese independence on 30 June, 1960. ...
1972 (MCMLXXII) was a leap year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1972 calendar). ...
October 28 is the 301st day of the year (302nd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 64 days remaining. ...
1906 (MCMVI) was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ...
King Léopold II His Majesty King Léopold II of the Belgians (Louis Philippe Marie Victor) (April 9, 1835–December 17, 1909), succeeded his father, Léopold I of Belgium, to the Belgian throne in 1865 and remained king until his death. ...
Cecil Rhodes. ...
1899 (MDCCCXCIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ...
1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday. ...
Copper's travail Cheap copper has no terrors for the great Mid-African mines of the Union Minière du Haut Katanga, world's biggest producer. At the company's annual meeting in Brussels last week. President Jean Jadot stated that his company can make money on 8¢ or even 7½¢ copper. Katanga's 1930 earnings were 270,208,000 Belgian francs ($7,511,000), only about 6,000,000 francs down from the peak earnings of 1929. Elements in Katanga's strength are: tremendously rich ores; cheap native labor; big production of cobalt and radium (over 82%, of world radium supply) on the side; and, most recent, the newly opened Benguela Railway, which connects Katanga with the Atlantic, saves hundreds of rail miles, thousands of sea miles for Katanga copper on its long journey to European markets.
Copper's Travail, August 10, 1931, Time [1] During its years of operation, the UMHK greatly contributed to the development of Katanga — which became more developed than its surrounding regions — at the same time employing mercenaries to subdue the local population. (The company's motto at the time, best expressing white opinion of indigenous population, was "good health, good spirits, and high productivity." Possibly it was because of this approach, and in attempt to stabilise and placate the workforce, that the Union introduced an accident compensation scheme as early as 1928.) Katanga's mineral wealth led to the construction of railways (including the Benguela railway) to connect it with the coast, a connection which took place in 1911. 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 [2]. In the 1950's, Congo was the world’s fourth largest copper-producing country. (Clockwise from upper left) Notable Time magazine covers from the dates May 7, 1945; July 25, 1969; December 31, 1999; September 14, 2001; and April 21, 2003. ...
1928 (MCMXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The Benguela railway is a railroad operated by the Caminho de Ferro de Benguela that connects the Atlantic port of Lobito, Angola, to the railroad systems of Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Zambia. ...
1911 (MCMXI) was a common year starting on Sunday (click on link for calendar). ...
A tonne (also called metric ton) is a non-SI unit of mass, accepted for use with SI, defined as: 1 tonne = 103 kg (= 106 g). ...
1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...
1935 (MCMXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...
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 cobalt (the UMHK was responsible 75% of the production of which during the 1950's), tin, uranium and zinc 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 radium 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, masuyite, renierite, richetite, schuilingite-(Nd), sengierite, tudtite and vandendriesscheite. Gaston Briart, after whom Briartite is named, was a UMHK consultant. General Name, Symbol, Number cobalt, Co, 27 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 9, 4, d Appearance metallic with gray tinge Atomic mass 58. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number tin, Sn, 50 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 5, p Appearance silvery lustrous gray Atomic mass 118. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number zinc, Zn, 30 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 12, 4, d Appearance bluish pale gray Atomic mass 65. ...
General Name, Symbol, Number radium, Ra, 88 Chemical series alkaline earth metals Group, Period, Block 2, 7, s Appearance silvery white metallic Atomic mass (226) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ...
Gaston 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. ...
Briartite is an opaque iron-grey metallic sulfide mineral, Cu2(Zn,Fe)GeS4 with traces of Ga and Sn, found as inclusions in other germanium-gallium-bearing sulfides. ...
In 1922, the UMHK built its first refinery for uranium 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-Curie, head of the French newly-established Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (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. [3] General Name, Symbol, Number uranium, U, 92 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery gray metallic; corrodes to a spalling black oxide coat in air Atomic mass 238. ...
Olen is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Antwerp. ...
Frédéric Joliot-Curie Jean Frédéric Joliot-Curie né Joliot (March 19, 1900 – August 14, 1958) was a French physicist and Nobel laureate. ...
The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) is one of the most prominent scientific research institutions in France. ...
The Americans also obtained uranium from the Union Minière. It was in a meeting between Edgar Sengier, head of UMHK, and United States General Kenneth David Nichols, working on the Manhattan Project, that the US obtained the 1500 metric tons of uranium (mostly mined at Shinkolobwe mine, near the town of Likasi) the project required. This was transferred directly from Congo to the United States; 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. [4] Edgar Sengier (1879—July 26, 1963) 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 the uranium necessary for the Manhattan Project. ...
The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ...
View of Jadotville (now Likasi), c1930. ...
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 francs, and export duties payed 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. The Belgian franc (Dutch Belgische frank, French franc belge) was the currency of Belgium, before the adoption of the euro. ...
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 Lumumba, Congo's first president after the Belgian colonial rule. Upon the provinces's secession, the Union transferred 1.25 billion Belgian francs (35 million USD) into Moise Tshombe's bank account, an advance on 1960 taxes which should in fact have been payed to Lumumba's government. On December 31, 1966, the Congolese government, under dictator Mobutu Sese Seko, took over the possessions and activities of the UMHK, transforming it into Gécamines (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 dictator Mobutu, meant that mining production was greatly reduced, with production rate sinking as much as 70%. 1960 (MCMLX) was a leap year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1960 calendar). ...
Patrice Lumumba Patrice Emery Lumumba (2 July 1925 - 17 January 1961) was an African nationalist leader and the first Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when it declared its independence in June 1960. ...
Moise Kapenda Tshombe (November 10, 1919 - June 29, 1969) was a Congolese politician. ...
December 31 is the 365th day of the year (366th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ...
1966 (MCMLXVI) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1966 calendar). ...
Mobutu Sese Seko in the 1960s sporting his signature leopardskin toque and glasses Mobutu Sese Seko Koko Ngbendu wa za Banga (October 14, 1930 – September 7, 1997), known commonly as Mobutu Sese Seko, born Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, was the President of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the...
Gécamines, or La Générale des Carrières et des Mines, is a Congolese state-owned mining company. ...
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