Union Minière du Haut Katanga

The Union Minière du Haut Katanga (UMHK) was a Belgian mining trust 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 Leopold 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 economy of the Congo).

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."). Katanga's mineral wealth led to the construction of railways 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 tons of copper on its first year. By 1919, annual production had risen to 22,000 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 copper-producing country.

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 UNHK consultant.

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 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 transfered to England before German troops entered Paris. [3]

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 tons of uranium (mostly mined at Shinkolobwe mine , near the town of Likasi ) the project required. This was transfered directly from Congo to the United States; some 1200 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]

During its heydays, 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.

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 transfered 1.25 billion Belgian francs (35m 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 Gecamines (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%.

External link

• List of directors of UMHK
• Scramble for Katanga (downloadable book)