Lighthouse recently co-published an investigative report with the Financial Times revealing that a region in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) with one of the world's richest uranium deposits, the same region that supplied the uranium used to develop U.S. nuclear weapons during World War II, has allegedly been the source of uranium secretly exported to China for the over 20 years.
China could not have obtained uranium from Congo, as Congo has maintained an indefinite ban on commercial uranium exports for more than two decades.
By 2004, the Shinkolobwe mine, which supplied uranium to the United States during World War II, had already been officially closed after a presidential order. These has raised the following question.
How did Congo uranium end up in China?
Lighthouse traced China's alleged uranium supply through a confidential memo from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). According to the memo, cobalt (an essential mineral used in battery manufacturing) is mined in the Katanga region, home to the Shinkolobwe mine.
