South of Windhoek, between the town of Rehoboth and the Aris railway siding, a narrow corridor of metamorphosed schists and amphibolites marks one of the last known southern expressions of the inland copper belt.
This belt, extending roughly 70 kilometres, contains numerous small copper showings that link Namibia’s central mining history with the early exploration of the Rehoboth Basement Inlier.
The first recorded mention of copper occurrences between Rehoboth and Aris appears in Geological Survey Bulletin No. 3 (1957), which described “green and blue copper stains on quartzites and amphibolites” along the Aris–Rehoboth road corridor.
Subsequent reconnaissance by Geological Survey geologists W. F. Söhnge and G. Miller in the early 1960s confirmed small workings and shallow pits on farms Klipdam, Gemsbok, and Auasblick, where malachite and azurite occurred in narrow veins within schist and quartzite.
By 1971, field sampling from the Rehoboth–Aris region had recorded copper values ranging between 0.4 and 1.2 per cent, according to Geological Survey archives. The mineralisation was attributed to hydrothermal shears related to the same tectonic system that hosts the Matchless and Otjihase deposits north of Windhoek.
Interest in the Rehoboth–Aris copper belt resurfaced in the 1980s, when local prospectors registered small claims under the Department of Mines and Energy’s open claim system.
The Gemsbok and Auasblick claims were worked briefly for surface ore, with small quantities of hand-sorted malachite sent for assay to the Tsumeb laboratories.
Between 2008 and 2016, the area was consolidated under Exclusive Prospecting Licence (EPL) 4123, held by Namibian Copper Exploration (Pty) Ltd, which conducted a regional magnetic and soil geochemical survey. The work outlined several weak copper anomalies trending northeast–southwest, particularly near Klipdam and Aris. Follow-up sampling in 2014 yielded assays of up to 0.7% copper from quartz–carbonate veins, which contained traces of chalcopyrite and bornite.
Since 2021, Shali Metals (Pty) Ltd, a Namibian private company, has reoccupied parts of the belt under EPL 8517, focusing on shallow trenching and pitting around the historical showings. Their 2023 progress note, filed with the Ministry of Mines and Energy, confirmed the presence of visible copper oxides over several hundred metres of strike.
The Rehoboth–Aris belt lies within the southern continuation of the Matchless Amphibolite Belt, characterised by metamorphosed volcanic rocks of the Kuiseb Formation intruded by biotite gneiss and granite. Copper mineralisation occurs as chalcopyrite, bornite, and malachite within quartz–carbonate veins and along sheared contacts between amphibolite and schist.
Structural studies by the Geological Survey in 1989 indicated that mineralisation is controlled by north-northeast-trending shear zones associated with the Damara orogeny. These shears act as conduits for copper-bearing fluids that deposited sulphides in narrow, discontinuous veins.
Weathering has produced extensive surface enrichment, with copper oxides visible on outcrops and small workings. No deep drilling has been undertaken to test for sulphide zones below the oxidised layer.
As of 2025, the Rehoboth–Aris copper belt remains under active early-stage exploration by Namibian private licence holders. The area has not yet yielded a defined resource, but surface sampling and mapping continue under the guidance of the Geological Survey of Namibia. The Ministry of Mines and Energy lists the belt as part of Namibia’s Small-Scale Mining Support Programme, encouraging further evaluation of the shallow copper veins for potential artisanal extraction.
The Rehoboth–Aris copper belt represents the southernmost continuation of the Windhoek copper province, bridging the geological gap between the Khomas Highlands and the Rehoboth Basement Inlier. Though never mined commercially, the belt preserves valuable geological evidence of the Damara Orogenic copper system’s full reach.
From the oxidised veins near Aris to the schist ridges south of Rehoboth, these small showings mark the outer rim of Namibia’s inland copper story — the point where the great Matchless Belt finally fades into the desert plains.
