Former Brussels head office of Forminière, Rue Royale 54[1]Slag heaps at Forminière's diamond installations in Kasai, c.1959
The Société internationale forestière et minière du Congo (French; lit.'International Forestry and Mining Company of the Congo'), known as Forminière, was a mining company in the Belgian Congo (modern-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). Founded by the industrialist Jean Jadot in 1906, the company began diamond mining in Kasai in 1913. At its height, Forminière was involved in gold and silver mining, cotton, palm and rubber cultivation, farming, sawmilling and even owned shops. The Belgian colonial state co-owned 50 percent of the company's capital, the rest being held largely by American shareholders.
For the length of its existence, from 1913 to 1961, Forminière had a monopoly on diamond production in Kasai.[3]
Due in part to a drop in production that coincided with the outbreak of the Second World War, the United States' Office of Strategic Services to investigate possible diversion of production to the Axis powers. In a 1945 lawsuit against De Beers, the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division attempted to get access to purchasing directly from Forminière instead of through the De Beers as a middleman.[4] The lawsuit was eventually dropped in 1948 due to jurisdictional issues.[5]
Forminière and its rival, the Société minière de Beceka (Mibeka), later changed to "de Bakwanga" (MIBA), dominated the production of diamonds in the Belgian Congo. In 1959, Forminière's production of diamonds rose to 425,234 carats.[6] However, after the 1960 independence of Congo and unrest in the region, company operations soon ceased.[3] Forminière was the principal corporate supporter of the secessionist state of South Kasai and received concessions from its government in exchange for financial support.[7]
