The Haut Katanga Mining Union (UMHK) was a Belgian mining industrial group established in Katanga, in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908, Belgian Congo from 1908 to 1960 and Zaire from 1972 to 1997).

The farms were mainly located in the Copperbelt.
Historical overview

The history of the Mining Union - known until 1967 as the Haut-Katanga Mining Union (UMHK) - spans three quarters of a century, from its creation in 1906 to its liquidation in 1981. These 75 years can be divided into two phases of unequal length.

    From 1906 to 1967, the company directly exploited copper mines (and incidentally other metals) in Congolese Katanga. In 1967, its assets were nationalized for the benefit of the Congolese state.
    From 1967 to 1981, Union Minière SA acted as a sort of consulting engineer in the affairs of SGM (Société Générale des Minerales). This collaborates with Gécomin (future Gécamines) to develop the mining heritage of Katanga. On the other hand, the Union Minière strives to acquire new direct mining assets, to geographically diversify its operations and to coordinate all activities in the non-ferrous sector in Belgium.

At least part of its history, the Haut Katanga Mining Union used forced labor2,3,4.
The origins (1906)
Malachite ore from Lubumbashi

The existence of significant copper deposits in Katanga had been known for a very long time when the Belgian geologist Jules Cornet made a first scientific assessment of them, during an expedition to Katanga in 1891. But at the time, Katanga was too isolated to consider industrial exploitation of the deposits identified, as important as they were. Prospecting resumed in 1899 on the initiative of the British Robert Williams (1860-1938), a friend of the businessman Cecil Rhodes. A team of English geologists led by Georges Gray and the geologist Studt was authorized to prospect in Katanga. Between 1902 and 1906, she identified the main copper and tin deposits in the Katanga province.

The Haut-Katanga Mining Union (UMHK) was founded from scratch on October 28, 19065 by different participants:

    the Special Committee of Katanga, a joint company formed in 1900 as an association between the Congo Free State and a private company, the Compagnie du Katanga;
    Tanganyika Concessions Limited, a British company created by Robert Williams, who provided the map of the mineral deposits spotted between 1901 and 1906 by the expedition;
    the Société Générale de Belgique, the main Belgian bank, which thus intervened for the first time in the Congo economy. She did so at the express request of King Leopold II of Belgium, who hoped to counterbalance British influence on mining Katanga.

Concretely, the UMHK was run from London in its early days, because the British had half the capital and the necessary know-how in the field of mining and metallurgical extraction. They controlled the main access route to the sites (the first railway to reach Katanga came from the South, via Rhodesia) and they provided the labor force (recruited mainly in Rhodesia). Under the aegis of Jean Jadot, Société Générale strived to gradually reduce this British influence. For this, it develops other copper evacuation routes (BCK railway), organizes recruitment centers in Congo and brings together the various Belgian shareholders (as well as the public authorities, who delegate all power at the General).
Difficult beginnings
The factories of Élisabethville (former name of Lubumbashi) in 1917.

UMHK received the right to exploit all copper deposits located within a 20,000 km2 concession, as well as all tin deposits included in a separate 14,000 km2 concession. It is also authorized to exploit, in a defined area, useful substances (iron, coal, limestone, and others necessary for the processing of ores) and waterfalls (for the production of motive power).

Difficulties were not lacking at the start of the company: technical difficulties because the implementation of cutting-edge industrial methods in the middle of Africa required long trial and error; difficulties in supplying raw materials, such as the coke necessary for smelting the oxidized ore (coke which will ultimately be brought from Rhodesia)5; difficulties in communication with commercial centers, partly resolved in 1918 by the junction of a local railway line with the Rhodesian railway network; labor difficulties because Katanga is sparsely populated and the recruitment of workers takes place several hundred km from the operating headquarters; organizational difficulties finally, due to the duality of management, the company reporting on

Prosperity of the Cold War years

During the first years after the war, exploitation maintained a sustained pace. The company carried out two very significant capital increases in 1946 and 1947, by incorporation of reserves, forecast funds, renewal funds and by revaluation of assets. The capital is thus increased from 300 million to 3 billion. The growing importance of farms justifies the extension of the means of production of motive power. The construction of three new hydroelectric power stations between 1947 and 1957 will make it possible to overcome this difficulty. In total, no less than 3 billion were invested between 1947 and 1952, both in the construction of new factories and hydroelectric power stations and in the extension of existing installations.

The company was most prosperous during the 1950s thanks to high prices for raw materials and in a context of the Cold War where the main Western nations built up strategic stocks of copper, cobalt, manganese, etc. In Katanga, significant research was undertaken at this time in the field of processing copper-cobaltiferous sulphide ores, which then represented the majority of the available mineral resources. A pilot plant was built in the years 1953-1955 near Jadotville, for the treatment of concentrates by sulphating roasting and leaching. Then the Luilu industrial installation was put into service in 1960 and 1961.

Market conditions and copper prices remained favorable from 1946 to 1960. It was the golden age of the company, except for a economic crisis in 1956 and 1957. Annual production climbs to 300,000 tonnes (1960 record), which represents 7 or 8% of world production. As of October 1960, the company has produced 6 million tons of copper since its inception. At the end of 1957 it employed 2,156 Europeans and 21,720 African workers7 compared to a total of 10,000 in 1935. The UHMK continues to care for its workers for whom it builds schools, dispensaries, hospitals and sports infrastructures. If the repercussions of its prosperity are significant for Katanga, they affect the whole of Congo because the taxes levied on exports constitute more than 50% of the colony's income.
The Congo independence crisis (1960-1965)

In 1960, UMHK adopted Belgian nationality and became a limited company. The unrest which marked the independence of the Congo initially had little impact on production, but relations with the Congolese government of Léopoldville deteriorated because the UMHK supported the secession of Katanga: it feared real communist tendencies. or imagined by the Prime Minister of Congo, Patrice Lumumba. Quite quickly, moreover, the management's relations with the secessionist government of Moïse Tshombe also became strained: certain Katangese ministers reproached Belgium for the lukewarmness of its commitment in favor of Katanga and at the same time feared seeing the UMHK close its doors or relocate certain activities. In the rest of the world, the UMHK's level of commitment to secession is the subject of controversy. The UN suspects it of supplying Katanga with weapons and ammunition, or even of manufacturing armored vehicles, bombs and war equipment for the benefit of the Katangese army. But the UMHK leadership formally denies granting such support to Tshombe, as well as financing the mercenaries. It is forced by circumstances, management claims, that the company is required to pay large sums to the secessionist government in mining royalties. Moreover, the UMHK personnel were very angry against the UN troops, especially after their intervention in September 1961 during which UMHK installations were targeted.

After the end of the secession in December 1962, other problems had to be resolved, especially that of the participation of the Congolese state in the capital of the UMHK. During the successive capital increases of the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga, the Special Committee of Katanga (CSK) became the main shareholder of the company with 24% of the shares and 36% of the voting rights. The CSK was unilaterally dissolved by the Belgian authorities on June 24, 1960. The dissolution agreement provided that a third of the CSK portfolio would return in full ownership to the Compagnie du Katanga. The other two thirds would become heritage of the Democratic Republic of Congo. But the latter contests this sharing and refuses to ratify the agreement to dissolve the CSK. After long negotiations, an agreement on the distribution of the assets and liabilities of this organization was concluded in 1965 with Mr. Tschombe, an agreement which left the Congolese Republic with an 18% stake in the UMHK, accompanied by 24% rights of ownership. votes, not allowing him to