The Uis Tin Project is one of the world’s largest undeveloped open-cast hard rock tin deposits discovered by the German geologist, Dr Paul, with links to the Gesellschaft, discovered the Uis Tin Mine in 1911.
Another German explorer, August Staunch, who ordered railway workers at Kolmanskop to hunt for diamonds, acquired the tin deposits in 1923.
Staunch claimed all the tin deposits in the Usakos, Karibib, Omaruru and Uis districts. He formed the Namib Tin Mines Ltd.
The Iron and Steel Corporation of South Africa (Iscor) assumed ownership of the tin deposits in 1958 under its subsidiary Imcor Tin. By 1980, the mine became the world’s biggest hard rock tin mine in 1980.
The Uis Tin Mine is under three licences – 129, 133 and 134 within a 35-km radius of the Uis town.
License ML133, colloquially called the Nainais tin-tantalite deposit, has hosted the historic Tin-Tan Mine. This area has been mined and prospected for tin and tantalite on a stop-start small-scale basis since the 1920s. This deposit is located within the Nainais-Kohero Pegmatite Belt, whose pegmatites have an origin of intrusion similar to the neighbouring Uis Pegmatite Belt.
Licence ML134 contains the historic Uis Tin Mine, where production commenced in 1924, and has historic “reserves” sufficient for another 75 years of production.
The Uis Tin Mine historically exploited Namibia’s most important tin deposit, which ranks among the largest of its type in the world.
ML129 – B1 and C1 – In 2001, a project Viability Study document was prepared by Falconbridge and the SMU to support a loan application for ML129 from the Minerals Development Fund. The resources reported used results from the exploration work conducted by Falconbridge, which included results from test pits, trenches, reverse circulation drilling, core drilling, chip sampling and bulk sampling. A historical resource of 1,379,906 tons was estimated at 738 ppm SnO2 and 151 ppm Ta2O5.
The ownership, historical exploration and production
1911 – Dr Paul of the Deutsche Kolonial Gesellschaft discovered mine.
1923 – August Stauch purchases a majority of known tin orebodies in the Omaruru, Karibib and Usakos districts and consolidates them into Namib Tin Mines Limited. Production is attempted on a small scale.
1930-1933 – Solar Development Company Investigated properties but did not purchase them.
1938 – Friedrich Krupp AG Purchases Uis tin rights with plans to undertake production on a large scale. The outbreak of WW II cancelled all mining plans. At the beginning of World War II, the Enemy Property custodian acquired all holdings.
1948 – Angus Munro Purchased properties from the Custodian of Enemy Property.
1951 – Uis Tin Mining Company (SWA) Limited begins large-scale mining.
1958 – Imcor (Industrial Minerals Mining Corporation (Pty) Ltd buys Uis and other properties owned by Namib Tin Mines Limited.
1990 – Uis Mine closes owing to the collapse of the tin price in the 1980s
1994 – Small Miners of Uis begins small-scale mining.
2011 – Procomex Company undertakes a technical due diligence assessment, which culminates in a bulk sample being collected
2014 – Riverdeep Resources compiles historic exploration and production data with the SMU to apply for a mining right.
2014 – The Uis Tin Project is held by Guinea Fowl Investments Twenty-Seven (Pty) Ltd, 85% owned by Dawnmin Africa Investments and 15% by Small Miners of Uis, a Namibian government-owned subsidiary. Dawnmin Africa is a company owned 50.5% by Erongo Tin Limited and 49.5% by a consortium of Namibian shareholders comprising Namuis (Pty) Ltd, Havana Investments (Pty) Ltd and Sweltering Desert Investments (Pty) Ltd.
2016 – Bushveld Minerals Limited acquired a 49.5% interest in Dawnmin Africa Investments Ltd through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Greenhills Resources Limited. The shares acquired belonged to Namuis (Pty) Ltd, Havana Investments (Pty) Ltd and Sweltering Desert Investments (Pty) Ltd.
2017 – AfriTin, a newly formed company, acquired Bushveld Minerals Ltd’s tin assets and was admitted on the London Stock Exchange AIM market on 9 November 2017 under the ticker symbol ATM.
10 January 2023 – AfriTin Mining Limited changes its name to Andrada Mining, reflecting the company’s expanding lithium and tantalum resources alongside its existing tin production.
