Shinkolobwe uranium
Uranio de Shinkolobwe
- Date
- c. 1915 · confidence medium
- Place
- Shinkolobwe, Likasi, Haut-Katanga, Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Credited to
- Prospectors of the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The Shinkolobwe deposit in Katanga held uraninite of exceptional grade (up to c. 65% U3O8). It was first used to obtain radium and, from 1940, as the uranium source of the Manhattan Project.
The attribution of the find (Jules Cornet, Robert Sharp or other prospectors) and the date (1913-1915) are uncertain; exploitation began in 1921.
What it led to
- radium for medicine from 1922 to 1930
- uranium for the 1945 bombs
- uranium geopolitics during the Cold War