As an old hand of the Union Minire du Haut Katanga, I spent several months in the area, and I find the United Nations report (T.N.M., July 30-Aug. 5/04) highly misleading. There is almost no risk with natural radioactivity. In the 1940s and ’50s, people were living on the site with no side effects.
True, every miner or underground employee had a piece of film that he wore around his neck as protection. But to my knowledge, no employee ever got sick or was retired due to exposure to radioactivity. Some spent almost their entire working life in the mine.
Shinkolobwe is only one in a string of deposits stretching 170 km long; these include several cluster deposits, such as Swambo, Menda-Kasompi and, eventually, Kalongwe. In 1956, my shelter was built almost right on the Kalongwe deposit. I spent months there and have never had any problems, and I am almost 76.
All those deposits are of the ubiquitous dolomitic Srie des Mines II, which extends from Lubumbashi up to Kolwezi, a stretch of about 300 km. While every Katanga copper-cobalt deposit contains some uranium, the deposits above are much richer. And with uranium comes gold, platinum and palladium, which are much less chemically mobile than uranium. and they concentrate in the regolith, or broken-down bedrock, in the soil at surface.
This is what interests the natives. They dig small shafts, about the diameter of a human body, that can go as deep as 20 metres or more. I have personally dug hundreds of such holes, and they are usually safe unless someone starts to enlarge the workings at the bottom of the hole.
I can’t help but think that the UN has a hidden agenda regarding Shinkolobwe. The mine is closed, but it is far from being exhausted. Much more ore remains at depth. That said, much work and money will be needed if someone is going to reopen it.
Ren Coda
Val d’Or, Que.
Be the first to comment on "United Nations report in doubt"