A mineral-rich region in DR Congo that was a major source of the uranium that helped produce US nuclear weapons during World War II has quietly been a source of uranium exports to China over the past two decades, a new investigation alleges.
DR Congo has the world’s largest cobalt reserves, with about 95% of the mineral’s ores exported to China. “Significant quantities” of uranium have also been exported to China alongside the cobalt as a by-product, despite a prohibition on commercial uranium export from the Central African country, according to Lighthouse Reports, a nonprofit investigations outfit based in the Netherlands. The investigation drew on a leaked memo attributed to the UN-affiliated International Atomic Energy Agency and documents from TFM, a formerly American-owned firm in Congo that now belongs to China’s CMOC, the world’s largest cobalt producer.
The Shinkolobwe mine in the southeastern Katanga region, which fed US nuclear warhead production, was formally closed in 2004, but mining activity persists in the region. Between 2,000 and 5,000 tonnes of uranium were exported from DR Congo to China between 2000 and 2024, Lighthouse’s investigation found.
