Tsumeb
Tsumeb (Otjiherero name: Okavisume) is a city of 15,000 inhabitants and the largest town in Oshikoto region in northern Namibia.
It is the "gateway to the north" of Namibia.
The Tsumeb Mine
Tsumeb, since its founding in 1905 by German colonists, has been primarily a mining town.
The town is the site of a deep mine (the lower workings now closed), that in its heyday was known simply as "The Tsumeb Mine" but has since been renamed the Ongopolo mine.
Origin of name
The name Tsumeb is generally pronounced "SOO-meb".
The name is not a derivative of German, Afrikaans, or English.
It has been suggested that it comes from Nama and means either "Place of the moss" or "Place of the frog".
Perhaps this old name had something to do with the huge natural hill of green, oxidized copper ore that existed there before it was mined out.
Geology and mining
Tsumeb is notable for the huge mineralized pipe that led to its foundation.
The origin of the pipe has been hotly debated.
The pipe penetrates more or less vertically through the Precambrian Otavi dolomite for at least 1300 m.
One possibility is that the pipe was actually a gigantic ancient cave system and that the rock filling it is sand that seeped in from above.
If the pipe is volcanic, as some have suggested, then the rock filling it (the "pseudo-aplite") is peculiar in the extreme.
The pipe was mined in prehistoric times but those ancient workers barely scratched the surface.
Most of the ore was removed in the 20th century by cut-and-fill methods.
The ore was polymetallic and from it copper, lead, silver, gold, arsenic and germanium were won.
There was also a fair amount of zinc present but the recovery of this metal was always difficult for technical reasons.
The pipe was famous for its richness. Many millions of tonnes of ore of spectacular grade were removed.
A good percentage of the ore (called "direct smelting ore") was so rich that it was sent straight to the smelter situated near the town without first having to be processed through the mineral enrichment plant.
The Tsumeb mine is also renowned amongst mineral collectors.
It is noted for 243 valid minerals and is the type location for 56 types of mineral.
Some of the germanium minerals are only found in this mine.
See also
External links
- Tsumeb @ Wikipedia
