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Mines/DR Congo

Shinkolobwe mine

Shinkolobwe mine, DR Congo. Closed, underground, mining uranium, cobalt.

Why Shinkolobwe is famous

Union Minire du Haut-Katanga ore, up to 60 times richer than average, supplied the Manhattan Project: 1,000 t was stockpiled in New York and 3,000 t shipped, and 3.4 million lb was purchased in 1944. Officially closed 2004.1,2

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1906Union Miniere du Haut Katanga created5
  2. 1942Congo uranium ore bought for the Manhattan Project4

Shinkolobwe today

Where uranium is mined todayWhere cobalt is mined todayMining in DR Congo

Where next

People

Owned byEdgar SengierHe shipped Congo uranium ore to New York before Germany could take it.3

Mines

An example ofJachymov minesMarie Curie's pitchblende came from Joachimsthal. Shinkolobwe's ore fed the Manhattan Project.1

Events

Owned byUnion Miniere du Haut Katanga createdUnion Miniere's Shinkolobwe ore was up to 60 times richer than average.1Led toCongo uranium ore bought for the Manhattan ProjectRead what happened near Shinkolobwe: Congo uranium ore bought for the Manhattan Project.1

Places

Located inLikasiShinkolobwe is about 15 km from Likasi.1

Trade routes

Shipped through hereShinkolobwe uranium ore to New York (Staten Island)The route touches Shinkolobwe.6

Sources

  1. Shinkolobwe and the Manhattan Project National Museum of Nuclear Science and History (Atomic Heritage)
  2. Wikidata entity Q22699872
  3. Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer: Sengier, Edgar (PDF) Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences (KAOW-ARSOM)
  4. Manhattan Project: Procurement of Uranium US Department of Energy OSTI
  5. Historique Gecamines
  6. Manhattan Project: Procurement of Uranium US Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information

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).