THE United Nations nuclear watchdog has demanded an urgent investigation into allegations that thousands of miners are illegally quarrying and exporting uranium in the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo.

More than six thousand so-called self-employed miners have been seen working in makeshift shafts at Shinkolobwe, one of the mineral-rich country’s oldest mines in the southeastern province of Katanga, which produced the uranium used in the atomic bombs dropped at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The miners are extracting substantial quantities of cobalt, copper, platinum and uranium, which are sold to local furnaces operated mainly by Pakistani, Chinese and Indian businessmen, and then illegally exported to world markets via Zambia.

The DRC Government insists that the mine, which is 1,250 miles from Kinshasa, has been shut down and placed off limits to all mining activities. But seven years of war and the country’s collapsing infrastructure have meant that the Government’s remit does not travel much beyond the capital.

The allegations have triggered alarm bells at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the UN body responsible for policing the world’s nuclear industry, which has called on Kinshasa to investigate the claims.

“If there is the possibility that large quantities of uranium are being mined and exported, it is very disturbing,” Melissa Fleming, the IAEA spokeswoman, said.

“The DRC has a protocol with the IAEA, which puts it under an obligation to report its uranium mining activities as well as its exports of uranium. The Government may not be fully aware of the activities ongoing in parts of the country. That said, we are demanding information from the Government on this illegal mining.”

The Shinkolobwe mine, which was discovered and developed by Belgium, the former colonial power, was filled with concrete under pressure from Washington in an effort to remove a potential nuclear security threat once Congo, now the DRC, gained its independence in 1960.

North Korea sent a team of engineers to prospect the mine in 1999. But they were promptly expelled by the Kinshasa Government under pressure from the US.

The miners are digging for cobalt, a mineral used in paints, batteries, and the new generation of mobile phones, and copper, which can still fetch good prices on world commodity markets. The mining process also entails the extraction of uranium, which theoretically could be processed into nuclear material.

Kinshasa’s Ministry of Scientific Research insists that the illegal mining of uranium poses no imminent threat as it is not immediately fissionable. “It could only be dangerous in the hands of countries that have, or are trying to develop, expensive nuclear reactors and laser technologies that can process uranium-238 into highly radioactive materials,” it said.

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