Luiswishi Mine
| Luiswishi Mine | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| General information about the mine | |||
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| Mining technology | Open pit | ||
| Information about the mining company | |||
| Start of operation | 1900 | ||
| End of operation | with an interruption until today | ||
| Funded raw materials | |||
| Degradation of | Copper-cobalt-uranium deposit | ||
| Geographical location | |||
| Coordinates | 11 ° 30 '55 " S , 27 ° 26' 21" E | ||
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| Location | Lubumbashi | ||
| province | Skin katanga | ||
| Country | Democratic Republic of Congo | ||
The Luiswishi Mine is an open pit mine in the Haut-Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and is located around 20 km north of the city of Lubumbashi, which has a population of around 1,630,000 .
History and geology
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Luiswishi Mine was one of the first copper and cobalt mines opened by Belgium in Katanga. After Belgium withdrew from the Congo in 1960, ore mining continued until 1962. The state-owned mining company Gécamines started a new prospecting in 1980 , but was discontinued due to financial problems. In 1998, Gécamines signed a contract with a subsidiary of the mining company Forrest Group , assuming an estimated ore deposit of 7.5 to 8 million tons, containing 2.5% copper and 1.0% cobalt.
In 2002 the mine reached an estimated production rate of 4500 tons of cobalt ore per year. Through a joint venture between Gécamines and Enterprise Générale Malta Forrest , the cobalt ore was exported to the OM Group's Kokkola refinery in Finland . In November 2002 Forrest announced that it would be closing the mine indefinitely for modernization work. In particular, the sedimentation basins - which had been in operation for 5 years now - should be repaired. The mine reopened in April 2003 and closed again in 2008 due to falling cobalt prices. The current mining rights are held by the mining company Compagnie Miniere du Sud Katanga (CMSK) , which is 60% owned by Enterprise Générale Malta Forrest - a subsidiary of the Forrest Group and 40% by Gécamines. CMSK was founded in 2004 and also operates the Luishia Mine . The raw ore is processed in Kipushi and shipped abroad. In July 2015, mining rights for a 13 km² area valued at USD 52 million for 354,619 t of copper and 62,903 t of cobalt were awarded to the Chinese mining company Congo Dongfang International Mining .
Suspected security issues
In December 2010, Wikileaks published a 2007 recording entitled Recent Allegations of Uranium Trafficking in the Democratic Republic of Congo , which indicated that there was an impermissibly high dose rate in the mine and suggested that the uranium ore was extracted from the allegedly extracted copper and cobalt ores is extracted. The Forrest Group rejected the rumors that there was neither excessive radiation exposure nor illegal trading in uranium ore, but admitted that uranium is contained in copper and cobalt ores - but mining is not worthwhile due to the insufficient uranium content. Officials from the Congolese government and the Monusco then inspected the mine and found no abnormalities.
Mineral finds
A total of 22 minerals and 2 varieties have been detected in the Luiswishi Mine so far (as of 2016) .
Type locality
The mineral sengierite has its type locality in the Luiswishi Mine.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Description of the location and mineral list of the Luiswishi Mine near Mindat Mindat (English)
- ↑ Luiswishi Mine on web.archive.org (English) ( Memento from April 20, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Monsieur Forrest, une mine d'investissements , Ayad Christophe (2006) on liberation.fr (French)
- ↑ Cobalt in: US Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook, Kim B. Shedd (2002), PDF (English)
- ↑ Communique sur la Cession du Permis d'Exploration 527 (PE 527) PDF (French) ( Memento of the original dated November 29, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ RECENT ALLEGATIONS OF URANIUM TRAFFICKING IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO at: wikileaks.org
- ↑ press release of Groupe Forrest International on web.archive.org (English) ( Memento of 25 April 2012 at the Internet Archive )
