Edgar Sengier

Edgar Sengier (1879 - July 26th 1963) was a director of the General society of Belgium and director of the Mining Union of High Katanga during the Second world war. Thanks to the intervention of Sengier, the American could easily have the Uranium necessary to the Projet Manhattan.

Sengier was the first nonAmerican civilian with being decorated with the Medal of the merit of the government of the the United States

The Mining Union of High Katanga

Sengier accepted his diploma for the occupation of mining engineer in 1903 and joined the Mining Union when this company began the exploitation of the mines of the Katanga. The UMHK was a subsidiary company of the Mining Union, itself a company of the group of the General society of Belgium, charged in particular to exploit the copper layers of the High Katanga. This zone of the Congo was described as “geological scandal” for the multiplicity and the richness of the Minerai S that one finds there.

Uranium

Intuition of Sengier

Very early, one discovers uranium with Shinkolobwe (1915) and its regular extraction begins as of 1921. The ore of Shinkolobwe was extremely rich, since it contained until 65 % of uranium, whereas the Canadian ore, for example, contained only 0,2 of it; %.

In 1938, Edgar Sengier, then directing from the General society and managing director of the UMHK, learned from European scientists the future possibilities of uranium. British scientists had informed it in these terms: “Be careful and never forget that the material in your possession could mean catastrophe for your country if it fell between enemy hands. ” Understanding that this by-product, until stored there without being used, could become vital in time of war, it ordered into 1939 that half of stock available in Africa, either a thousand of tons, or sent in secrecy to New York.

Sengier himself left for New York during release of the war in order to lead the world operations of the Mining Union during the occupation. However, uranium remained forgotten in a warehouse of Staten Island.

The Project Manhattan

In September 1942, the Colonel (become Général since) Kenneth Nichols, which had been charged by the owner with the Manhattan project, the general Leslie Groves, to find uranium, returned visit in Sengier to its office of New York. The officer asked Sengier if the Mining Union could provide uranium, specifying that it understood that this request would be perhaps difficult to satisfy quickly.

The answer of Sengier entered the history: “You can have the ore now. It is in New York, 1 000 tons. I awaited your visit.” Sengier immediately draws up a sale contract and the ore of Staten Island was transferred to the American army which obtained at the same time an option on the 1 000 tons still stored with Shinkolobwe.

Exploitation of Shinkolobwe

The mine of Shinkolobwe was unused since 1939, and was underwater. The American army dispatched there a quota of its body of the Genius to give it in activity, to extend the aerodromes of Léopoldville and Élisabethville, and to establish harbor installations with Matadi, on the river Congo. The exploitation of Shinkolobwe could then begin again and one estimates that between 1942 and 1944, 30 000 tons of ore were sold with the American army.

The Americans however wished to obtain the exclusiveness in the ore of Shinkolobwe, which Sengier refused to them. The Americans however inserted the governments in the dance and, with the support of the British government, acquired the exclusive right on the uranium of Shinkolobwe within the framework of negotiations which implied the Belgian government in exile with London (though only Sengier was apparently at least partially put in the confidence of the Manhattan project).

These particular agreements, signed between the the United States, the the United Kingdom and the Belgium, lasted 10 year and perdurèrent after the end of the war. They explain in particular the relative facility with which Belgium could be raised of the consequences of the war, not having contracted any important debt with regard to the financial great powers.

Distinctions

In 1946, Sengier went back to the United States where it accepted hands of the Groves general the Medal of the merit for its contribution to the allied victory. He was the first citizen not-American to receive this distinction created in 1945 by an order in Council. At the time, the restrictions on the information of time of war were not completely raised, and if the quotation mentioned the “services rendered within the framework of the material supply”, it did not detail which point the initiatives of Sengier had made it possible to modify the course the history.

Sengier was also made Chevalier of the British Empire, Commandeur of the French Légion of honor, and Officer of the Ordre of Léopold and the Ordre of the Crown by the Belgian government.

Lastly, in 1948, Sengier was honoured by the scientific community when its name was given to a new radioactive ore discovered in Congo, the “sengierite”.

End-of-life

Edgar Sengier remained director of the General society of Belgium and the Mining Union until 1949. Until 1960, it belonged to the board of directors of the latter and was withdrawn with Cannes, where it died in 1963.

See too

External bonds

The Manhattan-Uranium Connection
België in bom