Union Minière du Haut-Katanga

The Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (French; literally "Mining Union of Upper-Katanga") was a Belgian mining company (with minority British share) that controlled and operated the mining industry in the copperbelt region in the modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1906 and 1966.

Created in 1906, the UMHK was founded as a joint venture of the Belgian Compagnie du Katanga, the Belgian Comité Spécial du Katanga and the British Tanganyika Concessions.[2] The Compagnie du Katanga was a subsidiary of the Compagnie du Congo pour le Commerce et l'Industrie (CCCI), which was controlled by the country's largest conglomerate, the Société Générale de Belgique.[3] With the support of the colonial state, the company was allocated a 7,700 sqmi concession in Katanga.

Its primary product was copper, but it also produced tin, cobalt, radium, uranium, zinc, cadmium, germanium, manganese, silver, and gold. UMHK was part of a powerful group of global copper producers. By the start of World War II, the Société Générale controlled 70% of the Congolese economy.[4] Exercising preponderant influence over the Comité spécial, the Société Générale effectively controlled the Union Minière from its inception to 1960.[5] In 1968, the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga reorganized as Union Minière, which merged in 1989 with other entities to form the company that in 2001 renamed itself Umicore.

Colonial era

After Congolese independence

The Belgian Congo became independent in June 1960. After a brief period of political unrest, Katanga Province seceded unilaterally from the Congo to form the State of Katanga under Moïse Tshombe. Fearing that the Congo's left-leaning political leaders, especially Patrice Lumumba, would nationalise its holdings, the UMHK supported Tshombe and became a major force within the new state, and still allowed for Belgian and international control.[11] During the province's secession, the Union transferred 1.25 billion Belgian francs (35 million USD) into Tshombe's bank account, an advance on 1960 taxes which should in fact have been paid to Lumumba's government. In 1963, the secession was ended and Katanga reintegrated into the Congo.

On 31 December 1966, the Congolese government, under President Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, took over the possessions and activities of the UMHK, transforming it into Gécamines (Société générale des Carrières et des Mines), a state-owned mining company. Mismanagement and failure to adopt modern standards of mining (rather than mining depletion), as well as outright theft by Mobutu, meant that mining production was greatly reduced, with production rate sinking as much as 70%. Those assets of UMHK not seized by Mobutu were absorbed by the Société Générale de Belgique, later becoming part of Union Minière (now Umicore).

Göran Björkdahl (a Swedish aid worker) wrote in 2011 that he believed that the death of the-then United Nations Secretary-General

Union Minière

In 1968, UMHK was reorganized following the nationalization of its Congolese assets, with its name shortened as Union Minière. It kept operating under that name until after the 1989 merger that created what in 2001 became known as Umicore.

External links

• List of directors of UMHK – scroll down to Union Minière du Haut Katanga (de facto rulers)
• Scramble for Katanga (downloadable book)
• Umicore
• UMHK records, TANKS archive, University of Manchester Library

Further reading