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UK Queen in depleted uranium trade? British anti-war campaign group the Stop the War Coalition has in a video claimed that Britain's Queen Elizabeth is one of the richest women on earth and much of her profits are from arms trade including the notorious depleted uranium trade.

The video apparently created by anti-monarchy activists and published on YouTube says the British monarch has managed to increase her wealth from £300 million early in her 60-year reign to £17 billion at present thanks to investments in arms firms that produce uranium used in depleted uranium (DU) shells, including Rio Tinto Zinc.


DU shells are notorious for their ability to pierce armor and kill targets due to their deadly radioactive features.

The video cites the American nuclear radiation expert Jay M. Gould as saying in his 1996 book titled "The Enemy Within: the High Cost of Living Near Nuclear Reactors" that the British royal family, especially the Queen herself, privately own investments in uranium holding worth some £4 billion through Rio Tinto Zinc.

The mining company, originally named Rio Tinto Mines, was allegedly created for the British Royal family in the late 1950's by Ronald Walter Rowland, the Queen's "buccaneer".

The video argues that the Queen and other royals have been investing in the death trade of depleted uranium globally with little ethical concerns for the consequences of their profiteering. DU weapons were first used by the US military during the first Persian Gulf War against Iraq in 1991.

The US Defense Ministry estimated that between 315 and 350 tons of DU bombs, shells and bullets were fired during the conflict There are allegations that American and British troops used more than five times as many such weapons as the total number used in the 1991 war in Iraq.

The US has confirmed the use of depleted uranium in both wars but refuses to disclose the scale of the use.

Iraq has seen a sharp rise in the number of children with leukemia and genetic malformation in the decades after the First Persian Gulf War that are attributed to the use of DU weapons.