Shinkolobwe mine
Shinkolobwe mine, 1925
|
|
| Location | |
|---|---|
 Shinkolobwe mine
|
|
| Location | Shinkolobwe |
| Province | Katanga |
| Country | Democratic Republic of the Congo |
| Coordinates | 11°03′S 26°33′E / 11.050°S 26.550°ECoordinates: 11°03′S 26°33′E / 11.050°S 26.550°E |
| Production | |
| Products | Uranium ore |
| History | |
| Closed | 2004 |
Shinkolobwe, or Kasolo, or Chinkolobew, or Shainkolobwe, is a radium and uranium mine in the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), located 20 km west of Likasi, 20 km south of Kambove, and about 90 miles northwest of Lubumbashi.
The mine produced uranium ore for the Manhattan Project. It was officially closed in 2004.
Shinkolobwe is the name of a nearby village, long since gone, and the name of an indigenous thorny fruit. According to Zoellner, it is also slang for "a man who is easygoing on the surface but who becomes angry when provoked."
The mineral deposit was discovered in 1915 by an English geologist Robert Rich Sharp (1881-1958). The mine was worked from 1921 onwards. Uranium-bearing ore was initially exported to Olen, Belgium for the extraction of radium, and uranium. Only the richest ore was sent to Olen, with the remainder held in reserve. Open-cut mining was suspended at level 57 m and at the level 79 m underground in 1936, though exploration had commenced at level 114 m, and water pumps installed at level 150 m.
Both Britain and France expressed interest in the Belgium inventory of uranium ore in 1939. Nothing further happened though after the Nazis occupied Belgium in 1940, gaining control of the ore still "on the docks".
Open-cut operations restarted in 1944, and underground in 1945. This required pumping the mine dry since the water table was at about 45 m. The 255 m level was reached in 1955.
The United States used Shinkolobwe's uranium resources to supply the Manhattan Project to construct the atomic bomb in World War II. Edgar Sengier, then director of Union Minière du Haut Katanga, had stockpiled 1,200 tonnes of uranium ore in a warehouse on Staten Island, New York. This ore and an additional 3,000 tonnes of ore stored above-ground at the mine was purchased by Colonel Ken Nichols for use in the project. Nichols wrote:
...
Wikipedia