Tanganyika Concessions

Tanganyika Concessions Limited
TCL, Tanks
Company typeMining and railway
Industrymining
financial service activities, except insurance and pension funding 
Founded1899 (1899)
FounderRobert Williams
Headquarters,
United Kingdom 
Area served
Congo Free State, Belgian Congo / Democratic Republic of the Congo
ParentZambesia Exploring 

Tanganyika Concessions Limited (TCL or Tanks) was a British mining and railway company founded by the Scottish engineer and entrepreneur Robert Williams in 1899. The purpose was to exploit minerals in Northern Rhodesia and in the Congo Free State. Partly-owned subsidiaries included the Union Minière du Haut-Katanga (UMHK), which undertook mining in the Katanga portion of the copperbelt, and the Benguela railway, which provided a rail link across Angola to the Atlantic Ocean. Belgian banks eventually took over control of the company. The Angolan railway concession was returned to the state of Angola in 2001.