Portrait of Edgar Sengier

People/magnate, engineer

Edgar Sengier

Edgar Sengier (1879–1963), magnate, engineer, from Belgium. Linked to copper, uranium, cobalt.

The lucky break

In October 1911, while working in Shanghai, he received a cable from Jean Jadot asking him to join a mission to Katanga for Union Miniere's main shareholders.1,2,3

Legacy

At the end of 1940, fearing a takeover of the Congo, he had a lot of very rich ore from Shinkolobwe shipped to New York, where it was stored on Staten Island. The first grams of Union Miniere radium came out of the Olen plant in late 1922. Wikidata gives his birth as 19 October.1,2,3

Story cards

Timeline

  1. 1906Union Miniere du Haut Katanga created4
  2. 1942Congo uranium ore bought for the Manhattan Project5
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Where next

Mines

OwnedShinkolobweHe shipped Congo uranium ore to New York before Germany could take it.1

Events

Led toCongo uranium ore bought for the Manhattan ProjectHis stockpile on Staten Island fed the first atom bomb.1Worked atUnion Miniere du Haut Katanga createdA cable to Shanghai in 1911 sent him to Katanga for Union Miniere.1

Sources

  1. Biographie Belge d'Outre-Mer: Sengier, Edgar (PDF) Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences (KAOW-ARSOM)
  2. Wikidata item Q1284163
  3. File pages and licence metadata for portraits (via the Commons imageinfo/extmetadata API) Wikimedia Commons
  4. Historique Gecamines
  5. Manhattan Project: Procurement of Uranium US Department of Energy OSTI

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: Kopermijn te Kolwezi in de provincie Shaba (Katanka), Mieremet, Rob / Anefo / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0); 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); Timna in de Negevwoestijn; rotspartij "de zuilen van Salomo", Poll, Willem van de / Europeana (Public Domain Mark 1.0).