Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

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Andy H
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Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#1

Post by Andy H » 24 Jun 2011, 18:01

Below is an extract from a British Government paper regarding from Oct'39 about measures to be undertaken in the Netherlands & Belgium in the event of a German invasion:-
Stocks of Uranium.
14. It has been suggested that Uranium might form the
basis of a new and immensely powerful radiactive bomb.
We do not know whether the Germans have succeeded in
producing such a weapon but it would be better to be on
the safe side, and to restrict their supply to the
Czechoslovak source only. It would not be practicable
to move large stocks of raw uranium ore after the outbreak
of hostilities owing to its bulk. Unless arrangements can
be made beforehand, this would have to be left. Information
as to the stocks of ore and of refined uranium products
now in Belgium could best be obtained from Lord Stonehaven,
Vice-president of the Union Miniere Company who are the
principal holders and are to believed to be the only stockholders
in Belgium
CAB66/2/22

Does anyone have any further information upon Belgiums uranuim stock and what did actually happen to it (If it existed) either before or after Germany invaded in May1940?

Regards

Andy H

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phylo_roadking
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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#2

Post by phylo_roadking » 24 Jun 2011, 19:07

Andy, IIRC there was ~3,500 tons of "yellowcake" uranium ore in Belgium as of May 10th; the Shinkolobwe Mine run by Union Minière du Haut-Katanga in the Belgian Congo was the most productive in the world as of 1940, and produced the best ore - it contained 65% uranium oxide as opposed to the 40% of the Canadian ore from the Eldorado mine. On the outbreak of war, George Thompson at Imperial College, London had urged the government to buy as much of it up as they could on the open market, but I don't believe this was done. The Germans captured the yellowcake at Union Miniere's Olen refinery, but the Belgians had managed to evacuate three tons of metallic uranium oxide to Paris in April - to join five tons that had been sent there for research purposes in June 1939 - where it was put in the care of the Juliot-Curies...and it seems to have been evacuated from France subsequently. The "official" French story is that it was evacuated to and hidden in French Morocco for the duration...tho' there's a thread somewhere on ww2talk I've been trying to find for you that discusses the man in charge of an evacuation operation to England and the ship used in late May or early June 1940...though this may when I find it refer to the French heavy water that was evacuated and hidden in Wormwood Scrubs during the war years.

What happened to it subsequently? Well, most writers seem to agree on a figure of ~600 tons of metal being refined from it by the Germans, though Albert Speer ALSO mentions in Chapter 16 of Inside the Third Reich authorising some 1,600 tons of uranium being set aside for use to replace the wolfram (tungsten) they'd lost access to...I assume from that it was refined metal? Interestingly, the Americans recovered some 1,200 tons of the Belgian material in Europe at the end of the war; the sums are roughly right to account for the 3,500 or so tons plus whatever tonnage they got during the war from Czechoslovakia.
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Andy H
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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#3

Post by Andy H » 24 Jun 2011, 21:16

Hi Phylo

Excellent thank you.

I'm guessing that with the Belgians frought attitude about not being seen as doing anything with the UK/Fra that might be construde by the Germans as 'help', that the cake wasn't ready to move at short notice given that the bulk was captured/lost? Do you have any info where it was stored in relation to the possibility of it being shipped to the UK?

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Andy H

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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#4

Post by phylo_roadking » 24 Jun 2011, 22:01

Do you have any info where it was stored in relation to the possibility of it being shipped to the UK?
Well, if it was captured at the refinery - then I'd assume that no special arrangements had been made! 8O
I'm guessing that with the Belgians frought attitude about not being seen as doing anything with the UK/Fra that might be construde by the Germans as 'help', that the cake wasn't ready to move at short notice given that the bulk was captured/lost?
Just thinking off the cuff....but given that one of the main railway lines into France ran through the Gembloux Gap 8O - with the French Army deployed along the line of it due to the hash the Belgians had made of moving/re-deploying the KW-Line's anti-tank fence!....then even if it had been possible from a standing start to load up a few dozen railcars (like all other Belgian industries, a good percentage of Union Miniere's employees would be in uniform somewhere!) it might have been decided that any attempt to shift it might take it closer to the Gemans!

Also, I'd read that paragraph...
Information as to the stocks of ore and of refined uranium products
now in Belgium could best be obtained from Lord Stonehaven,
Vice-president of the Union Miniere Company who are the
principal holders and are to believed to be the only stockholders
in Belgium
....as meaning that all this was being done covertly, with no input from or to the Belgian government! At least - as of October 1939...
Twenty years ago we had Johnny Cash, Bob Hope and Steve Jobs. Now we have no Cash, no Hope and no Jobs....
Lord, please keep Kevin Bacon alive...

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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#5

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 29 Jun 2011, 02:12

In the same general time, the US also 'purchased' or otherwise obtained 1,200+ tons of ore. Its implied & assumed this was a shipment from Africa to Europe that was stranded along the way when Belgium ceased fire. But, it would tidy up the research were this confirmed, along with some details of the circumstances. Otherwise we will have people speculating that the US purchase was actually ore from Belgium fleeing the Huns.

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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#6

Post by Jon G. » 29 Jun 2011, 02:21

The Belgian Uranium went directly from the Congo to the States, according to the Dummett article which I quote from here

http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic. ... 8#p1259308

Also see this thread:
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=119231

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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#7

Post by Andy H » 08 Jul 2011, 15:47

Thanks for the links Jon, especially the one from the African Journal

Regards

Andy H

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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#8

Post by Carl Schwamberger » 10 Jul 2011, 14:06

I second that. Usefull information there

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Re: Belgian Uranium stocks 1939-40-How much?

#9

Post by Jon G. » 10 Jul 2011, 15:35

Cheers, gents.

Here's the full excerpt - first half is in the post I link to, second part is new:
...
The part played by the Union Miniere in furnishing supplies of uranium for the experiments which led to the atomic bomb also deserves brief mention.

In October 1940 the company's director, Edgar Sengier, reacting to Nazi confiscation of mineral supplies in Belgium, decided to ship all uranium ore stockpiled in Katanga to New York through the African Metals Corporation.

This 1,200 tons of high quality Congo ore plus small quantities of ore from Canada and U.S. were practically all that the U.S. atomic scientists had to work with on the Manhattan project up through 1944. Thus African uranium was essential for the experiments that led directly to the atomic bomb.

To the chagrin of British scientists, who needed supplies of U-235 for their own atomic project, the 1940 shipment was followed by a long hiatus in which production in the Congo was shut down owing to massive flooding at the lower levels of Katanga's Shinkolobwe mine, plus a shortage of skilled labour which UMHK was loathe to divert from copper and other strategic minerals production.

Furthermore the UMHK imposed a difficult condition on the Allies in the form of requests for subsidies in reopening the mines. It was only after protracted negotiations by the 'Development Trust ', a sub-division of the Anglo American Combined Raw Materials Board, coupled with pressure from the Belgian government, that UMHK finally agreed to reopen its major uranium mines in late 1944. This and subsequent agreements for the exclusive sale of up to 10,000 tons of Congo uranium ore to both Britain and U.S.A. were of importance for post-war atomic energy development...
All from Raymond Dumett: Africa's Strategic Minerals During the Second World War, from The Journal of African History vol. 26 no. 4 (which is a special issue about Africa and WW2)

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