SHINKOLOBWE, Congo (Reuters) - A mine in Congo that provided uranium for the first atomic bombs is being illegally quarried and the potentially dangerous raw material exported without control, industry experts say.
Thousands of self-employed miners are pounding away at rocks and descending into makeshift shafts at Shinkolobwe, one of mineral-rich Congo's largest and oldest mines in the southeastern province of Katanga.
The miners are digging up cobalt and copper compounds, in high demand on the world market, but the amalgamates contain significant traces of uranium, which can be processed into nuclear material in the hands of expert scientists.
"They are inadvertently exporting raw uranium, which could find its way into the hands of countries that are capable of using it," said John Skinner, General Manager of Swanepoel Enterprises, a South African farming and contract mining company that has been based in nearby Likasi since the 1930s.
"The uranium from Shinkolobwe is mostly uranium-238, and therefore not immediately fissionable," says Professor Fortunat Lumu, Atomic Energy General Officer at Congo's Ministry of Scientific Research in the capital Kinshasa.
