UIS is a small town not far from Henties Bay, which used to be a vibrant mining town where the open-pit mine once had the reputation of being the largest hard-rock tin mine in the world.
Tin was discovered at Uis in 1911 by Dr Paul of the German Colonial Gesellschaft. In 1923 August Stauch, who discovered diamonds at Kolmanskop, bought up the known tin deposits in the Usakos, Karibib, Omaruru and Uis districts. These deposits were mined under the name of Namib Tin Mines Ltd.During the Great Depression from 1930 to 1933, no tin was produced and in 1938 the mine was acquired by Krupp of Germany.Plans were then laid out to mine Uis pegmatite deposits on a large scale but the outbreak of World War II brought this development to a halt.After the war the Custodian of Enemy Property sold the mine to Angus Munro, who died in a plane crash, causing another delay in resuming mining. In 1958 Imkor Tin (Pty) Ltd bought Uis and other properties that belonged to Namib Tin Mines. Imkor installed an extraction plant for tin ore, producing about 35 tons of ore an hour. In 1966 the company enlarged the plant to handle approximately 100 tons an hour and started building the present town of Uis.At the beginning of 1980 the plant was again enlarged to process 140 tons per hour on a 24-hour basis, seven days a week. This produced 100 to 120 tons of cassiterite (tin ore or tin oxide) per month.The closure of the mine in November 1990 caused a dramatic fall in local tin production and also the economic life of the town and its inhabitants. The tin-bearing pegmatite at Uis lies in a 32 km wide schist belt stretching from Uis to Cape Cross, over a distance of 130 km. Imkor Tin, a subsidiary of Iscor South Africa, closed down in 1991 due to a collapse in tin prices on the world market.Uis was proclaimed a village in 1996 after Namibia Base Metals (NBM) bought the old mining houses and buildings of Uis through businessman Albert Weitz. A brick factory and several tourist lodges, bed-and-breakfast establishment and craft markets for tourists travelling to the Brandberg and other places are breathing new life into the town.After the mine closed no rehabilitation to the land or environment was done and the mine dumps, open pits, rundown structures and buildings were left behind.
