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Events/Law or policy · 1942

Congo uranium ore bought for the Manhattan Project

Law or policy, 1942-09, DR Congo.

What happened

The Manhattan Project history says Edgar Sengier of Union Miniere offered ore from Shinkolobwe in March 1942. In early September Colonel Kenneth Nichols met him and moved to buy the 1,200 tons stored on Staten Island. By the end of the year the Army had also bought about 3,000 tons of ore in the Congo.1,2,3

Why it matters

Shinkolobwe was one of three major sources of Manhattan Project uranium, with Eldorado in Canada and mines in the American West.1,2,3

Story cards

Around the same time

  1. Shinkolobwe mine is shut

    Union Minière stopped work because radium and uranium stocks covered the next 30 years of demand.4,5

  2. US imports 106 tons of uranium oxides from the Belgian Congo

    Of 168 tons used in the US that year, 106 tons came from the Congo and 26 tons from Colorado.5,6

  3. Manhattan Project begins

    Manhattan Project begins.7

  4. About 1,200 tons of Shinkolobwe ore reach Staten Island

    Sengier shipped the ore to keep it out of German hands and stored it in a warehouse.6,8,9

  5. Colonel Nichols buys the Staten Island uranium and 3,000 tons more

    Contracts with Sengier secured the ore needed for wartime work.6,9

  6. Combined Development Trust is set up for Congo uranium

    Roosevelt and Churchill signed an agreement to seek exclusive rights to Belgian Congo uranium.5,6

Open the full timeline

Where next

People

Came out ofEdgar SengierHis stockpile on Staten Island fed the first atom bomb.10

Mines

Located inShinkolobweThe Army also bought about 3,000 tons of ore in the Congo by the end of 1942.11

Places

Located inLikasiSee the nearby place: Likasi.1

Trade routes

Shipped throughShinkolobwe uranium ore to New York (Staten Island)In 1940 about 1,200 tons of ore went to the US and sat in drums on Staten Island.6

Sources

  1. Manhattan Project: Procurement of Uranium US Department of Energy OSTI
  2. Manhattan Project: Uranium Mines US Department of Energy OSTI
  3. Shinkolobwe mine (item Q2096071), coordinate location P625 Wikidata
  4. Manhattan Project: Uranium Mines US Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information
  5. Wikidata item Q2096071 (Shinkolobwe mine)
  6. Manhattan Project: Procurement of Uranium US Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information
  7. Wikidata item Q127050 (Manhattan Project begins)
  8. Staten Island, New York (Manhattan Project National Historical Park) US National Park Service
  9. Wikidata item Q18432 (Staten Island)
  10. Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer: Sengier, Edgar (PDF) Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences (KAOW-ARSOM)
  11. 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.

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Cover photos from Wikimedia Commons: Malachite on cobaltocalcite, Musonoi by Ji-Elle, CC BY-SA 3.0. Pictures: The laboratories of Marie and Pierre Curie, Paris: room where experiments on uranium ore took place. Photograph, ca. 1900., Unknown (Wellcome Collection) (Public Domain Mark 1.0).