Drag to turn the globe

Events/Company founded · 1906

Union Miniere du Haut Katanga created

Company founded, 1906-10-28, DR Congo.

What happened

Gecamines dates Union Miniere du Haut Katanga to a royal decree of King Leopold II on 28 October 1906. It came from a merger of a Leopold company with Tanganyika Concessions.1,2

Why it matters

It ran Katanga's mines until nationalisation in 1967 and is the origin of Gecamines.1,2

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. War of the Pacific begins

    War of the Pacific begins.3

  2. Mount Morgan gold mining begins

    The site is now a major abandoned mine remediation project.4,5

  3. Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company founded

    Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company founded.6

  4. Union Miniere du Haut Katanga created

    It ran Katanga's mines until nationalisation in 1967 and is the origin of Gecamines.1,2

  5. Chuquicamata: inception

    Chuquicamata: inception.7

  6. Granite Mountain shaft fire at Butte

    It is the deadliest US metal mine disaster on the MSHA list.8,9

  7. Hand mining falls from 90 to 16 per cent in Katanga

    Steam shovels in the Union Minière open pits cut hand extraction in six years.10,11

  8. Ottawa Accords steer Northern Rhodesian copper to Britain

    Preferential access to British markets meant most Northern Rhodesian copper went to Britain.10,12

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

Worked hereEdgar SengierA cable to Shanghai in 1911 sent him to Katanga for Union Miniere.13

Mines

OwnedShinkolobweUnion Miniere's Shinkolobwe ore was up to 60 times richer than average.14Located inRuashiA mine from the same area and mineral story: Ruashi.1

Events

Led toUnion Miniere nationalised as GecaminesUnion Miniere ran Katanga's mines until the state took it over in 1967.1

Places

Located inLubumbashiSee the place where this happened: Lubumbashi.1

Trade routes

Came out ofKatanga copper ore to BelgiumKatanga production began in 1911, and the hand-mined ore first went to Belgium.10

Sources

  1. Historique Gecamines
  2. Lubumbashi (item Q187593), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  3. Wikidata item Q152004 (War of the Pacific begins)
  4. Mount Morgan remediation project Queensland Government
  5. Mount Morgan Mine (item Q6922260), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  6. Wikidata item Q6921923 (Mount Lyell Mining and Railway Company founded)
  7. Wikidata item Q746606 (Chuquicamata: inception)
  8. Fact Sheet 95-8: Historical Data on Mine Disasters in the United States US Mine Safety and Health Administration
  9. Butte (item Q467664), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  10. Money D., Teh L., Race at Work: A Comparative History of Mining Labor and Empire on the Central African Copperbelt and the Fushun Coalfields, ca. 1907-1945 International Labor and Working-Class History 101 (Cambridge University Press)
  11. Wikidata item Q187593 (Lubumbashi)
  12. Wikidata item Q239580 (Kitwe)
  13. Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer: Sengier, Edgar (PDF) Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences (KAOW-ARSOM)
  14. Shinkolobwe and the Manhattan Project National Museum of Nuclear Science and History (Atomic Heritage)

Pictures on this page: Edgar Sengier receiving the Medal of Merit (cropped).jpg, Atomic Heritage Foundation (Public domain).

From the Prospector Trails mining history dataset: each fact links to the source it was checked against. Figures are as the source gives them, in the money of their day. Not investment advice.

Keep exploring

Stories with these minerals

Lessons from historyResource nationalism: what the record shows1623-2025Green malachite on pink cobaltocalcite, a copper and cobalt specimen from Musonoi near KolweziMining historyCongo's copper and cobaltCopper and cobalt · DR CongoThe world runs on rockThe GridCopper, the metal of electricityHistory of miningWhose ore is it? Resource nationalism1952-2025

All mining storiesThe world runs on rockAll mineralsMining by country

Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Malachite on cobaltocalcite, Musonoi by Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pictures: Kopermijn te Kolwezi in de provincie Shaba (Katanka), Mieremet, Rob / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); Chiquicamata Mine, Chile, NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Space Systems, and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (Public domain (NASA media, no copyright)).