Stretching across central Namibia, the Damara Orogenic Belt has become the country’s principal gold corridor, hosting both long-standing operations and next-generation projects.
It’s a story of early colonial prospecting, decades of dormancy, and a twenty-first-century revival driven by modern geology and sustained investment.
Gold within the Damara rocks was first recorded in the early 1900s by German geologists such as Paul Range and, later, Hans Martin, who described quartz veins containing sulphide minerals and traces of gold across central Namibia — particularly around Omaruru, Otjimbingwe, and the Khan River.
According to Range’s 1915 report, Beiträge zur Geologie des Khan-Swakop-Reviers, these early surveys revealed gold-bearing quartz veins, but poor infrastructure and limited technology prevented commercial development.
The first organised production came in 1917 from the Ondundu goldfield, northwest of Omaruru.
Mindat and the Geological Survey of Namibia state that it produced about 616 kilograms of gold before closing in 1963. Smaller alluvial yields followed, including about 46.9 kilograms from the Epako–Otjua gravels between 1937 and 1943, according to archived mining records cited by Osino Resources.
For much of the twentieth century, however, exploration was sporadic and small-scale, as the territory’s attention shifted to copper, diamonds, and base metals.
Interest revived in the late 1970s and 1980s, when geologists began applying systematic geochemistry and structural mapping to the Damara rocks.
The turning point came in 1984, when Erongo Exploration and Mining Company, an Anglo American subsidiary, identified a gold anomaly near Karibib. That discovery became Navachab, and in 1989, the mine poured Namibia’s first modern gold bar. According to the Southern African Institute of Mining and Metallurgy Journal (1991), construction began in 1988, and President Sam Nujoma inaugurated the mine the following year — an event that transformed Namibia’s mineral landscape.
Navachab proved that Damara marbles and schists could host large, open-pittable gold deposits.
The mine, located in the southern Central Zone of the belt, continues to operate today and has undergone several expansions under its current owner, QKR Namibia.
While not literally “multi-billion-dollar” in scale, the mine’s successive investments have extended its life and introduced new processing circuits to handle deeper, sulphide-rich ore.
Navachab’s success spurred further exploration northward. The subsequent significant discovery was Otjikoto, between Otjiwarongo and Otavi, initially delineated by Auryx Gold and later acquired by B2Gold in 2011. Built at a cost of roughly US$275 million, the mine poured its first gold in December 2014 and has since produced more than 1.7 million ounces.
B2Gold says Otjikoto remains one of Africa’s most efficient open-pit operations and is now transitioning underground through its Wolfshag extension.
The project confirmed that gold mineralisation continues along the same structural corridor linking Karibib, Omaruru, and Otjiwarongo, extending deep into northern Namibia.
Between Karibib and Omaruru, the Twin Hills Gold Project marks the most significant new addition to the belt. Discovered in 2019 by Osino Resources under the leadership of Namibian mining engineer Heye Daun, Twin Hills was found beneath calcrete cover in an area once considered barren.
The discovery, led by geologist Dave Underwood, showcased the power of data-driven exploration in Namibia’s hidden terrains.
Osino’s Definitive Feasibility Study, released in June 2023, outlined a 13-year open-pit mine producing an average of 162,000 ounces of gold annually. Proven and probable reserves stand at 64.3 million tonnes grading 1.04 g/t, containing 2.15 million ounces of gold.
The study calculated a pre-tax net present value of US$742 million at US$1,750/oz, an internal rate of return of 34 per cent, and a payback period of just over two years. The project has received environmental clearance and, according to company statements, early site works and infrastructure development are underway, with first production targeted for 2027.
In 2024, Osino agreed to a friendly acquisition by Yintai Gold Co. Ltd (now Shanjin International Gold), a Shanghai-listed company, marking one of the few cases of Chinese investment in Namibian gold rather than uranium. Shanjin has since accelerated development, awarding an engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) contract worth about A$40 million to Lycopodium of Australia.
To the northwest, WIA Gold Limited’s Kokoseb Project, near Okombahe and Uis, is rapidly emerging as the next significant addition to the belt. Discovered in 2021, Kokoseb is a granite-hosted system extending several kilometres. A 2025 resource update placed total contained gold at 2.93 million ounces at an average grade of about 1.0 g/t, making it one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in southern Africa.
According to African Mining Market and Ecofin Agency, feasibility studies are underway, and early mine planning has begun, with the potential for construction later this decade.
Exploration is also pushing outward from the established centres. In the Khorixas and Omatjete districts, Great Quest Gold has reported rock-chip assays exceeding 10 g/t and early reverse-circulation drilling intercepts such as 18 metres @ 1.72 g/t, including 8 metres @ 3.72 g/t, along the Okondeka Fault Zone. Though early-stage, the results hint at the continuity of gold systems farther northwest than previously mapped.
Today, the Damara Gold Belt hosts between eight and nine million ounces of defined gold reserves and resources across its four principal deposits — Navachab, Otjikoto, Twin Hills, and Kokoseb — according to public company filings. Navachab contributes roughly two million ounces, Otjikoto about 1.8 million, Twin Hills 2.15 million, and Kokoseb 2.93 million.
Together, they anchor Namibia’s reputation as one of southern Africa’s emerging gold jurisdictions.
The belt’s wealth is a product of its Pan-African geological history, more than 500 million years old. Metamorphic shears and fold zones within the Damara Belt channelled gold-bearing fluids that deposited quartz-carbonate veins and disseminated mineralisation, much of it hidden beneath calcrete cover.
Modern exploration methods — from airborne geophysics and satellite imagery to deep drilling and 3-D structural modelling — have uncovered the large, low-grade systems invisible to early prospectors.
According to the Bank of Namibia’s 2025 Economic Outlook, gold exports reached record levels in late 2025, strengthening foreign reserves.
The Chamber of Mines estimates that the gold industry directly employs more than 2,000 Namibians. At the same time, construction of new projects such as Twin Hills and Kokoseb could temporarily add over 1,000 jobs around the Karibib–Omaruru corridor.
Yet the Damara Belt’s growth faces real constraints. Many deposits lie under thick calcrete, requiring expensive drilling and advanced geophysical surveys to delineate. Water availability, power capacity, and sulphide-rich metallurgy all pose challenges for mine expansion. Still, the track record of discovery and development continues to draw new investors.
By 2027, Namibia is expected to host four operating gold mines — Navachab, Otjikoto, Twin Hills, and possibly Kokoseb — making gold a stable third pillar alongside uranium and diamonds. The continuity of discoveries over more than a century underscores a lesson in persistence: from the colonial surveyors of the early 1900s to the geophysical explorers of today, each generation has peeled back another layer of the Damara Belt’s potential.
And while the way gold is traded has changed profoundly, its symbolism endures. A century ago, gold dust was bartered in Otjimbingwe or Swakopmund for food and tools before being shipped unrefined to Europe or the Rand Refinery in South Africa.
