Edgar Sengier - Shinkolobwe's Uranium

Shinkolobwe's Uranium

Uranium was discovered as early as 1915 in Shinkolobwe, and extraction began in 1921. Uranium ore from Shinkolobwe was very rich (it contained up to 65% of uranium); in comparison, Canadian ore contained only 0.02%.

In May 1939, Edgar Sengier, then director of both the Société Générale and the UMHK, learned about the potential of uranium from European scientists. British scientists had warned him that should the material he possessed fall into the enemy's hands, the consequences would be catastrophic. Sengier understood that uranium, a by-product that had until then been stored without being used, could become a crucial resource in times of war. In September 1940, he ordered that half of the uranium stock available in Africa (about 1,250 tons) be secretly dispatched to New York, arriving on November 10 and December 19, 1940.

At the start of the war, Sengier himself travelled to New York to conduct the Union Minière 's worldwide operations from there. At first, the UMHKs uranium stockpile remained in a Staten Island warehouse.