Lessons from the past
In pursuit of pegmatites
Tin has been mined in the Uis region of Namibia since
the early 1920s. Leon Louw visited the area recently.
T
Waste dumps at the historical Uis tin mine in Namibia.
The main open pit mined by Iscor from the late 1950s to the
early 1990s. Today, almost half of the pit is underwater.
[30] MINING MIRROR OCTOBER 2018
he Uis Tin Mining Company was established in 1951 and seven years
later, the South African government-owned mining company Iscor
started mining the deposit.
The ore grade at Uis is low and profitability has always been largely
dependent on the market price.
The mine closed in 1991 when the operation became
uneconomical to mine. A few years ago, when the tin
price improved slightly, South Africa-based
exploration company AfriTin acquired
the mining rights and is currently
looking at re-mining the
area.