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Union Minire Du Haut KatangaThe Union Minire 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. Cheap copper has no terrors for the great Mid-African mines of the Union Minire 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 7 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. 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 http://www.let.leidenuniv.nl/history/rtg/cartels/copper.html. In 1922, the UMHK built its first refinery for uranium ore, and by 1926 had a virtual monopoly of the world uranium market, to be broken only by the German invasion of 1940. Later, it was in a meeting between Edgar Sengier, head of UMHK, and United States General David Kenneth Nichols, working on the Manhattan project, that the US obtained the uranium the project required. 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. 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. In addition to the copper for which it is known, Katanga was also rich in other minerals. 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. During its heydays, the UMHK operated schools, dispensaries, hospitals and sporting establishments, and had enjoyed virtually unlimited funds with the Banque de la Socit Gnrale de Belgique. This eventually came to an end. Turbulence started in 1960, with the Congolese declaration of independence. 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 (Socit gnrale des Carrires 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
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