France, Aug. 9 -- Lighthouse Reports obtained a previously undisclosed internal memo from the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2024 and began investigating its contents.

The 2009 document cited credible information indicating that uranium was present in "significant quantities" in most cobalt ores from Katanga, in the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo, and was "effectively exported as a cobalt by-product".

Lighthouse Reports conducted the investigation in partnership with The Financial Times and Le Monde. Infrastructure at the Shinkolobwe uranium mine, near the city of Likasi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uranium in mineral-rich Katanga

The Katanga region - part of Central Africa's Copperbelt - has increasin...