A study conducted by Princeton University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison revealed vast amounts of undocumented uranium has been exported from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the past 20 years.
The uranium has been extracted, concentrated, and exported from the DRC, travelling through the country’s cobalt supply chain without any declaration to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
The IAEA has established regulations for the safe transport of radioactive materials. These rules have been incorporated into the UN Model Regulations and subsequently adopted by the International Maritime Organisation for sea shipments and the International Civil Aviation Organisation for air transport.
The regulations are globally implemented and mandatory, with individual states also enacting their own rules for shipments on land.
Researchers uncover decades of undeclared uranium in the DRC’s supply chain
The study reveals that all documented uranium exports from the DRC halted following the closing of the Shinkolobwe mine, which was home to the uranium ore used in the Manhattan Project’s bombs.
The Manhattan Project led to the creation of the first atomic bombs during World War II, two of which were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.
The report was published by Ryan Manzuk and Sébastien Philippe. Manzuk is a post-doctoral research associate at Princeton University’s Program on Science and Global Security, and Philippe is an assistant professor of nuclear engineering and engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Their study notes that large quantities of unreported uranium are leaving the DRC attached to the cobalt compounds exported by the country.
Manzuk and Philippe estimate that 2,000–5,000 metric tonnes of natural uranium has been exported from the DRC in cobalt-hydroxide shipments between 2000 and 2024, with the majority of the exports heading to China.
Manzuk says that less than 10% of the material has been publicly declared to the IAEA.
“This quantity of uranium could be used to produce fissile material for roughly 600 to 1,500 nuclear weapons or fuel a standard light-water nuclear reactor for 10 to 25 years,” Manzuk says.
“Even if mines in the DRC were systematically implementing uranium removal strategies to keep cobalt products within international shipping limits for radioactivity, enough uranium would be reaching China to make approximately 12 nuclear weapons per year.
“Not declaring this amount of uranium to the IAEA is a violation of the Additional Protocol of China’s safeguards agreement. The sheer size of the DRC’s cobalt industry poses a uranium accountancy problem, regardless of uranium grades in ores or removal strategies.”
The authors note a number of risks, including global security risk, environmental, health, and safety risks.
“Prior research has shown that some populations of miners and communities near mines in the DRC show signs of uranium exposure that is beyond the recommended dosing even for workers in nuclear industries.”
Miners dispute findings, warn report has damaged confidence in DRC cobalt supply
The Union of Chinese-Capital Mining Companies in the DRC (USMCC) has rejected the allegations in a statement posted on X, describing the claims as “unfounded”. The USMCC also notes that the report has led to market and commercial activity disruption and has damaged the public confidence in cobalt from the DRC.
This response comes immediately following the DRC’s latest ban on cobalt and copper concentrates, as previously reported.
The USMCC has acknowledged that cobalt hydroxide produced under normal conditions may contain extremely low natural traces of uranium, but that the concentrations are below the threshold required for commercially viable extraction.
“There are no economic or technical conditions for recovering, extracting, or exploiting this uranium,” the USMCC says.
The USMCC has committed to conduct regular sampling and publish quality-control findings to demonstrate member compliance with mining laws in the DRC, as well as international testing standards.
Write to Amy Rotman at Mining.com.au
Images: Ivanhoe Mines
