BA 185Photo collection belonging to an English engineer working on installing floatation plants in the mining-rich region of Haut-Katanga province in the Belgian Congo, from 1923-1925. He was employed by the Union Miniere Du Haut-Katanga, a Belgian mining company with a minority British shareholding. He served at various mining locations, such as Panda, Kapolowe, Kanseria, Lufira, Kalabi, Muchikitala, Kukontwe and Elizabethville (provincial capital). A number of colonial company employees are named (Bedecker, Schneider, Nottel, Vandeer Herreweghen, Gasquard, Viroux) as well as local natives (Pierre Ketche, Kapita Sitanda, Sicubari, Baluwani). Much on native worker compounds for both the Union Miniere Du Haut-Katanga (UM) and the Compagnie de Chemin de Fer du Katanga (CFK). Many photos of whites and natives working together, a local sultan, rail stations, mining operations, native life, colonial living separate from native living, brick making, Mission station, white employees wives, transporting a car on a river barge, hunting, interior views of a colonial home, a visit by a senior colonial official, local ascaris, the1923 Exposition Agricole, native life on a company compound, building construction, funeral for a local native employee, natives mining uranium (note: In 1922, the UMHK built its first refinery for uranium ore, and by 1926 had a virtual monopoly of the world uranium market), local habits, rare photo of the Hotel Metropole in Elizabethville (now demolished), natives transporting a steam engine through the bush, colonial buildings in small mining locals, open pit mining, train wreck, military parade by local ascaris on July 7 1923. He travels from London to Madeira, then to Capetown before arriving in Elizabethville. 280 photos in all.
Price: $2200.00
NOTE: Most of the mining sites and towns are located in the province of Haut-Katanga. The area prospered with the development of a regional copper mining industry. Huge investments in the 1920s, both in the mining industry and in transport infrastructure (railline Elisabethville-Port Francqui and Elisabethville-Dilolo), developed the Katanga province into one of the world's major copper ore producers. This photo archive relates to this period.
