N$300m revival for Uis Tin Mine

LONDON-LISTED Afritin is reviving the defunct Uis Tin Mine – a project said to cost about N$300 million, company CEO Anthony Viljoen told The Namibian on Monday.

Afritin owns 100% of Namibian-registered Dawnmin Investments Limited, who are in a joint venture with the small miners of Uis (SMU), a non-profit organisation established by the ministry of mines and energy.

“We strongly believe in local participation in the countries in which we operate, and the board of the SMU is involved in the day-to-day operations of the mining enterprise, and are specifically looking to use their equity interest in the project for rural development projects around the mining area,” Viljoen explained.

Although still in the planning phases, direct job creation will initially be about 100 people, which is expected to increase as the mine develops.

The mine belonged to South Africa’s steel giant Iscor, and was opened in 1960. It was a huge operation with very low yield in that every 85 000 tonnes of rock mined would only yield about 1,4 tonnes of tin.

Old residents of the small town told this newspaper that South Africa needed the mine because when sanctions set in, there was no trade with global markets, so Uis became one of the contributors of tin for the country’s very dynamic steel industry.

However, when the sanctions were lifted in 1990, tin was again available for much cheaper on the global market, and so Iscor just pulled out.

“Iscor had done a lot of work back in the day regarding bringing up large reserves to continue their mining operations. The mine, however, was closed for some reasons, the predominant one being the huge drop in the tin prices at the time.

“The resource remains in the ground, however, and as a result of a renewed demand and price and new mining and processing techniques, we believe that there is a bright future for tin mining at Uis and Namibia in general,” Viljoen noted.

Although there have been a few attempts to revive the mine previously, it remained desolate until recently.

Tin is a versatile metal with few substitutes, given its unique physical properties. As a result of this, as well as its application in new technologies, it has been in high demand in recent years, and prices have been on the increase.

“Good tin deposits are hard to find on a large scale, and as a result, there are fewer and fewer mines producing the metal,” Viljoen said, adding that the closest comparable mine in the world regarding grade and scale and mining method is Pitinga in Brazil.

Tin, currently valued at about N$240 000 per tonne, is used mainly in electronic equipment as solder, and is also now being considered in battery production, electric vehicles, renewable energy and a whole host of new technology applications.

“The Uis mine used to be the largest open-cast tin mine in the world, and we aim to try and achieve that objective once again. The economic development impact will be huge. The closure of the mine in the poverty-stricken Damaraland area had a big impact on the lives of many families.

“We believe the increase in economic activities, as well as the associated infrastructure, will have a big impact on the lives of the people in the area. Not least, of course, are the direct creation of jobs,” Viljoen added.

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