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Illegal Uranium Mining Continues in Congo
Despite a government ban, illegal mining continues in a section of the Democratic Republic of the Congo that contains uranium ore, the Associated Press reported today (see GSN, March 25). In February, Congolese President Joseph Kabila ordered the closure of the Shinkolobwe mines, near the city of Likasi in the southeastern section of the country. The government has not enforced the ban, and thousands of freelance miners continue to work to excavate high-grade cobalt, and inadvertently, uranium ore, AP reported. “They’re digging as fast as they can dig, and everyone is buying it," said mining engineer John Skinner in Likasi. “The problem is that nobody knows where it’s all going. There is no control,” he said. The United States said in March that there had not been any “worrisome movement” of uranium ore out of the Shinkolobwe mines, and some experts have said that the small quantity of uranium being extracted is not enough to attract terrorists seeking to develop nuclear or radiological weapons. Even so, some proliferation experts have expressed concern about the illegal mining, AP reported. “It’s a whole other problem when governments can’t control what happens on their own land,” said Michael Levi, a science and technology fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington. The United States has recently sent experts to investigate the Shinkolobwe mine, according to the Associated Press. In addition, the International Atomic Energy Agency also offered to inspect the mine, but the Congolese government has not accepted the offer (Todd Pitman, Associated Press/Yahoo!News, June 1).
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