Union Minière du Haut Katanga

The Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (French; "Mining Union of Upper Katanga"), often abbreviated to Union Minière or UMHK, was a Belgian mining company which operated in the former Congo Free State and Belgian Congo between 1906 and 1966.

It was created on 28 October 1906, as a result of a merger of a company created by Leopold II and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd (a British company created by Robert Williams, which started prospecting for minerals in 1899, and was granted mining concessions in 1900), in order to exploit the mineral wealth of Katanga. It was owned jointly by the Comité spécial du Katanga, a joint venture company controlled by the Belgian Congo government, the Société Générale de Belgique, Belgium's largest holding company (which controlled 70% of the Congolese economy) and Tanganyika Concessions Ltd. Exercising preponderant influence over the Comité spécial, the Société Générale effectively controlled the Union Minière from its inception to 1960. Some of the remains of the UMHK form part of the present day company Umicore.

Cheap copper has no terrors for the great Mid-African mines of the Union Minière du Haut Katanga, world's biggest producer... Elements in Katanga's strength are: tremendously rich ores; cheap native labor; big production of cobalt and radium (over 82%, of world radium supply) on the side; and, most recent, the newly opened Benguela Railway, which connects Katanga with the Atlantic, saves hundreds of rail miles, thousands of nautical miles for Katanga copper on its long journey to European markets.

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