Quote:
Originally Posted by Mohoender
And you reminded me that I still had to watch the belgian movie "Lumumba" (really excellent but I don't know if there is any english copy somewhere)
My cousin answered quite quickly. Here is a translation of what he wrote:
The minerals are exploited by two means. Part of it (Cu and Co) is processed on the spot in various locations (Kolwezi, Kipushi, Fungurume...). This is done in electrical oven. Then, the metal (undergoing only partial refinement) is shaped into ingot and brought by truck to the two main harbor : Durban (South Africa) and Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania).
Interesting when it comes to the relations between the FBU and the USA. Then, help might be given to US troops in Kenya not because of oil but to secure access to he harbor. Also interesting for the relations with South Africa.
Another part of the mineral (for exemple, Uranium) is brought as such still using trucks. The mineral is, then, put in "Big Bags" and sent to either the ports or to conditioning factories in South Africa.
As a resumé: always by truck (60 tons double carrier trucks), in ingots (partial refinement) or Big Bags (non-refined).
Most of it get out of Katanga through Kasumbalesa on the border with Zambia (96 km south of Lubumbashi).
Might not be the French in Katanga but the South Africans
I could have asked him some times ago but until very recently he was working in the south of Algeria extracting oil (in what they call a life base) and was out of reach. He just quit his job because he considered to have had enough with revolutions and uprisings. Fair enough when you consider that he had been several times in the RDC (Kolwezi...), Chad (When France and the CIA had a small issue with an obscure Colonel Khadaffy), Haute-Volta (the day prior to it being renamed Burkina Faso), Haiti (at the time of Baby Doc fall)...
My uncle and aunt lived in 35 African countries and went through 32 wars and revolutions. Each time they arrived somewhere we used to bet on how long the regime would last. Now, they have been residing in France for two years   . |
Thanks Mo, that's interesting...so from the looks of things you'd need to make sure you had some sort of power source in place for the electric ovens.
Both sea ports are on the east coast of Africa so that would present some challenges I think, particularly if we assume that the Suez Canal is no longer passable...any ships coming out of East Africa and headed for France would have to go the long way around. Durban is a long haul and I suppose is governed by what has happened in South Africa, which is something that has come up on these boards a few times before. Dar is closer so would (presumably) mean shorter journey times to the port (thinking here that the riskiest part of the venture would be the road trip from the mine to the coast). As you say though, interesting as to how a French presence in Tanzania might affect relations with the US (and others). Zanzibar might be an interesting setting.
Also, I don't think it's been mentioned in this thread, but we know from the RDF Sourcebook that there's a significant French presence in Djibouti.
Interesting info...thanks