Word: minis
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Destruction of the Kolwezi dams would unleash huge floods, wipe out at least one-fifth of Union Minière's $600 million investment in Katanga and cut off 80% of the province's power supply. Some engineers doubted that the Katangese were expert enough to destroy the Kolwezi dams. And on the basis of the past track record of the Union Minière (which is controlled by Belgium's all-pervading Société Générale), many another observer was prepared to bet that the Kolwezi dams would survive...
Single Policy. In 2½ years of Congo turmoil, Union Minière has demonstrated a remarkable talent for survival. By paying Tshombe $30 million to $40 million a year in taxes, royalties and duties, and by shipping its exports out through Rhodesia and Portuguese Angola, Union Minière throughout the Congo crisis has maintained its rank as the world's third biggest producer of copper and its biggest producer of cobalt. The company's sales did fall some 20% last year, but that was because of the slump in world metal markets. Union Mini...
...Union Minière defends the fact that it has paid taxes to Tshombe rather than to the Congo's central government with the realpolitik argument that up to now Tshombe has been the effective power in Katanga. Last week, with Tshombe's star apparently sinking, the company began negotiating with the central government over future payments. To charges that the company has been meddling in Congolese politics. Union Minière Director Herman Robiliart snaps: "The policy of Union Minière is to produce copper...
Diversionary Actions. Just now the Union Minière is not producing any copper; its installations at Elisabethville and Jadotville, now under U.N. control, have been temporarily damaged, and its Kolwezi facilities are occupied by the Katanga gendarmerie. But with its usual instinct for survival, the company has labored to appease both sides. At the big Jadotville copper and cobalt plant, Union Minière officials thwarted the "scorched earth" tactics of Tshombe's men by directing them to relatively easily replaceable facilities which were damaged with much fanfare. Shortly later, the same officials, many of whom had long...
Even Union Minière, which might be expected to exaggerate in the hope of dissuading the Katangese from doing any more damage, says that the Jadotville plants could start rolling again in two to four months. Most outside observers figure that Union Minière will again be producing full blast well before that-provided the Kolwezi dams are not blown...