Bringing life back to Uis

AUGETTO GRAIG London-based investor AfriTin Mining is reviving mining operations at the tin mine that gave birth to the sleepy Damaraland town of Uis. Fresh economic opportunities for the town and the surrounding region bring a welcome injection of hope to a community whose livelihood once depended on tin production.International sanctions on South Africa during the years of apartheid restricted trading with the rest of the world and forced the occupiers of then South West Africa to look locally for its mineral requirements. To meet its demand, South Africa’s mining giant Iscor established a tin mine at Uis, which later became one of the biggest tin mines in the world. Independence for Namibia coincided with disaster for Uis when the mine was closed in 1991. Besides the lifting of sanctions against South Africa which allowed Namibia’s giant southern neighbour to buy tin in the international market, the global tin market collapsed in 1985 and suppressed prices forced the sudden closure of the mine. In the last decade there have been significant improvements in the global tin market. In 2011 the price of tin rose as high as US$33 000 per metric tonne. Price increases have been driven by declining tin stocks and legislation passed in Europe restricting the use of lead in electronic soldering. Tin is used more extensively in electronic soldering as a result, pushing up demand.Besides its use in soldering applicable to the manufacture of all electronics, tin also has great potential for use in electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and other emerging technologies.By 28 March 2019 the international price of tin was US$21 400 per tonne. In comparison, the price of copper, considered a higher-value mineral, stood at US$6 340 per tonne. With the tin market predicted to remain in a supply deficit until at least 2022 and demand fundamentals for tin applications looking robust for the long term, the time has come for tin to become king of Uis again.Today it is hard to believe that the sleepy town of Uis at the edge of the Namib Desert was once the hub of a mining boom that boasted the largest hard rock tin mine in the world. The tin mining boom, which lasted longer than half a century, started in 1911 when tin was discovered by a Dr Paul of the Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft. In 1923, August Stauch, who is also associated with the discovery of diamonds at Kolmanskop, bought the known tin deposits in the Usakos, Karibib, Omaruru and Uis districts and set up Namib Tin Mines Ltd.During the Great Depression from 1930 to 1933 no tin was produced, and in 1938 the Uis mine was acquired by German industrial conglomerate Krupp. Unfortunately, large-scale development plans for the Uis mine were brought to a standstill with the outbreak of World War II in 1939. After the war the mine was sold to Angus Munro, whose death in a plane crash further delayed the implementation of production plans.In 1958, Imkor Tin (Pty) Ltd bought Uis and other properties that belonged to Namib Tin Mines, and installed an extraction plant for tin ore that produced about 35 tonnes an hour.In 1966, the South African company enlarged the plant to handle approximately 100 tonnes an hour and built the town of Uis. In early 1980, the extraction plant was again enlarged to process 140 tonnes per hour around the clock.The tin boom ended in late 1990 when tin prices collapsed on the global market and the mine's production was drastically slashed, leading to job losses and a reduction in the quality of life of Uis residents.Imkor Tin, a subsidiary of Iscor South Africa, closed down the mine in 1991 and Uis became a virtual ghost town overnight.Nonetheless, Uis was proclaimed a village in 1996 after Namibia Base Metals (NBM) bought the old mining houses and buildings through businessman Albert Weitz.A brickmaking factory and several tourist lodges, bed-and-breakfast establishments and tourist craft markets for those traveling to the Bandberg and environs breathed new life into the town. Tourism operators still take clients up onto the white mine dumps to view the sunset over the Brandberg.The tin-bearing sediment at Uis lies in a 32-kilometre-wide belt stretching from Cape Cross at the coast, a distance of 130 km.AfriTin’s new project covers three project areas that were all previously operating tin mines. The initial phase of AfriTin’s plan is to develop the Uis mine and construct a processing plant there.The new plant is designed to process 500 000 tonnes of ore per year and will produce 65 tonnes of tin concentrate each month. The early cash-flow injection expected from this production will help fund a full bankable feasibility study to be completed before commencing with phase two of the development. In phase two a much larger plant with processing capacity of three million tonnes of ore per year will be built to produce about 5 500 tonnes of tin concentrate per year. Initially this project will create 100 direct jobs for the local community. AfriTin is also collaborating with the Small Miners of Uis (SMU) to support small-scale miners in the area. SMU, a not-for-profit organisation, has been given shares in the new venture. AfriTin will later evaluate the two additional mining areas nearby and also two further exclusive prospecting licences that it holds in the area. According to the Chamber of Mines of Namibia, AfriTin intends to expand its footprint in the region and on the continent to become the champion of tin mining in Africa.

Bringing life back to Uis

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Republikein 2025-04-18

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