Leo Szilard, a refugee Hungarian physicist living in the US, was worried about Nazi Germany's plans to build an atomic weapon and more specifically about them getting uranium from the Belgian Congo. He convinced Albert Einstein, a former teacher of his, to write the Elisabeth, the Belgian Queen Mother, and warn them not to let the uranium be taken by Germany. Later Einstein wrote to President Roosevelt, advising him to purchase the uranium from the Congo. The Manhattan Engineering District bought 1,250 tons of uranium ore from the Belgian owner of the Shinkolobwe mine for $1.60 per pound. As the war continued more was purchased with annual orders amounting to $200 million.

The Belgians left the Congo in 1960 and closed the mine by flooding the shafts and blocking the entrance with concrete. At the time the mine was shut down, Congo was supplying 60% of the world's uranium.

In the late 1990s, small amounts of mining began again at this site to obtain cobalt, a material used in cell phones. Conditions quickly deteriorated and became dangerous for the miners as the site was left unregulated and uncontrolled. By 2004, 6000 people were illegally working at the mine. Ore from the mine was being sent to smelters in the Congo as well as nearby Zimbabwe. The material being extracted contains cobalt, copper, platinum and uranium. The uranium is reported as being sold to nearby private furnaces owned by Chinese and Indian Corporations and then illegally exported through Zambia. Congo officials have said that the mine has drawn attention from the governments of other African countries as well as North Korea.

The Oxford based organization Rights and Accountability in Development (RAID) claims small scale uranium smuggling out of Shinkolobwe has been taking place for a long time. They blame local corruption as well as middlemen from Lebanon, India and Pakistan. In 2005, Tanzanian Customs officials reported intercepting a large quantity of yellow cake headed to Iran. Members of the UN's Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) are concerned that Iran would be able to get uranium from the Shinkolobwe mine to use in a secret enrichment program. The Congo government allows the IAEA to conduct intrusive, short-notice inspections.

Mining at Shinkolobwe is reported to begin at 7:30 in the morning and continue all day. There are few safety measures in places and the men, who dig with shovels, hammers and pick axes, handle radioactive material with no protection. In July of 2004, part of mine collapsed trapping 30 people and killing nine.

References

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3887373.stm http://www.inl.gov/proving-the-principle/chapter_03.pdf
www.pugwash.dk/Dokumenter/FlecknerAvery.doc http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3566701.stm http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/nov2004/2004-11-10-03.html http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/B526409.htm http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=9043&highlight=Shinkolobwe http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article5576520.ece http://www.anl.gov/Science_and_Technology/History/Anniversary_Frontiers/aetofdr.html