The Husab Mine (formerly the Rössing South Mine), operated under the Husab Uranium Project, is a

uranium mine Uranium mining is the process of extraction of uranium ore from the earth. Over 50,000 tons of uranium were produced in 2019. Kazakhstan, Canada, and Australia were the top three uranium producers, respectively, and together account for 68% of w ...

near the town of

Swakopmund Swakopmund ("Mouth of the Swakop River, Swakop") is a city on the coast of western Namibia, west of the Namibian capital Windhoek via the B2 road (Namibia), B2 main road. It is the capital of the Erongo Region, Erongo administrative district. It ...

in the

Erongo Erongo is one of the 14 regions of Namibia. The capital is Swakopmund. It is named after Mount Erongo, a well-known landmark in Namibia and in this area. Erongo contains the municipalities of Walvis Bay, Swakopmund, Henties Bay and Omaruru, as ...

region of western-central

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. The mine is located approximately south of the larger

Rössing uranium mine The Rössing uranium mine in Namibia is the longest-running and one of the largest open pit uranium mines in the world. It is located in the Namib Desert near the town of Arandis, 70 kilometres from the coastal town of Swakopmund. Discovered i ...

and from

Walvis Bay Walvis Bay (; ; ) is a city in Namibia and the name of the bay on which it lies. It is the List of cities in Namibia, second largest city in Namibia and the largest coastal city in the country. The city covers an area of of land. The bay is a ...

. Swakop Uranium believes the Husab Mine ''has the potential'' to become the second largest uranium mine in the world after the

McArthur River uranium mine The McArthur River Uranium Mine, in northern Saskatchewan, Canada, is the world's largest high-grade uranium deposit. The mine is owned by Cameco (70%), and Orano Canada (30%) (formerly Areva Resources Canada, formerly COGEMA Resources Inc ...

in northern

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and the largest open-pit mine on the African continent. Mine construction started in February 2013. The Husab Mine started production towards the end of 2016 after completion of the

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, ...

leaching plant.

Operations

On 1 December 2011, the Namibian Ministry of Mines and Energy granted license to Swakop Uranium to develop the mine. The uranium in the Husab deposit is granite hosted, and currently consists of an administration and housing area and three open pits. The mine has the potential to produce 15 million pounds (6800 tonnes) of uranium oxide per annum. The Husab mine contains approximately 280 million tonnes of uranium ore. Mining is expected to last nearly 20 years. As of at least 2024, the

China-Africa Development Fund The China-Africa Development Fund (), more commonly known as CAD Fund, is a China Government Guidance Fund solely funded by China Development Bank, a Chinese government policy bank. The aim of the fund is to stimulate investment in Africa by Chi ...

and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Uranium Resources Co together own approximately 90% of the mine.

Geology

Uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

mineralisation is hosted primarily within sheeted

leucogranite Leucogranite is a light-colored, granitic, igneous rock containing almost no dark minerals. Leucogranites have been reported from a variety of orogenies involving continental collisions. Examples include the Black Hills (Trans-Hudson orogeny ...

s that intruse the rocks at various stages during the Damara Orogeny. Formation of the uranium magmatic ore body is stratigraphically controlled with the Khan-Rossing boundary acting as a

redox Redox ( , , reduction–oxidation or oxidation–reduction) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of the reactants change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is t ...

front. The abundance of

iron oxide An iron oxide is a chemical compound composed of iron and oxygen. Several iron oxides are recognized. Often they are non-stoichiometric. Ferric oxyhydroxides are a related class of compounds, perhaps the best known of which is rust. Iron ...

s and

sulfide Sulfide (also sulphide in British English) is an inorganic anion of sulfur with the chemical formula S2− or a compound containing one or more S2− ions. Solutions of sulfide salts are corrosive. ''Sulfide'' also refers to large families o ...

s provide reducing conditions for uranium to be oxidised and precipitate in the form of

uraninite Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is a radioactive, uranium-rich mineral and ore with a chemical composition that is largely UO2 but because of oxidation typically contains variable proportions of U3O8. Radioactive decay of the uranium c ...

which is the primary ore mineral that is mined at Husab.

Swakop Uranium

Swakop Uranium is an entity established in 2006 by Extract Resources, an Australian company listed on the Australian, Canadian, and Namibian stock exchanges, to explore, evaluate, develop, and produce

uranium oxide Uranium oxide is an oxide of the element uranium. The metal uranium forms several oxides: * Uranium dioxide or uranium(IV) oxide (UO2, the mineral uraninite or pitchblende) * Diuranium pentoxide or uranium(V) oxide (U2O5) * Uranium trioxide or ...

. In April 2012, Swakop Uranium was acquired by Taurus Minerals Limited of

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. Swakop Uranium head office is located in Swakopmund. Taurus is a subsidiary of the China General Nuclear Power Company (CGNPC), Uranium Resources Co. Ltd. and the

. Taurus owns ninety percent of Swakop Uranium. The remaining 10% is owned by Epangelo Mining Company, the Namibian state-owned mining company. CGNPC's investment in Swakop Uranium is one of the biggest investments in Namibia since its independence, and by far the single biggest investment by

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

in Africa. More than US$100-million (in excess of N$1-billion) was spent to reach the construction phase. A further amount of approximately US$2-billion (more than N$20-billion) was spent to bring the mine online.

Environment

Flora and fauna

Swakop Uranium has an environmental management plan committed to caring for all species of

fauna Fauna (: faunae or faunas) is all of the animal life present in a particular region or time. The corresponding terms for plants and fungi are ''flora'' and '' funga'', respectively. Flora, fauna, funga and other forms of life are collectively ...

and

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

found near, or within, its exploration and mining areas.

Welwitschia mirabilis ''Welwitschia'' is a monotypic genus of gnetophytes containing only the species ''Welwitschia mirabilis''. It is named after the Austrian botanist Friedrich Welwitsch, who documented the plant in the 1850s. In common use, it is sometimes ref ...

, an ancient plant, grows in areas around the mine. Carbon dating shows that medium-sized plants can be as old as 1,000 years.

Water

The Husab Project is challenged to ensure that limited nearby water resources are not adversely affected by mining operations. The

Namib Desert The Namib ( ; ) is a coastal desert in Southern Africa. According to the broadest definition, the Namib stretches for more than along the Atlantic coasts of Angola, Namibia, and northwest South Africa, extending southward from the Carunjamba Ri ...

is a hyper-

arid Aridity is the condition of geographical regions which make up approximately 43% of total global available land area, characterized by low annual precipitation, increased temperatures, and limited water availability.Perez-Aguilar, L. Y., Plata ...

desert with an average rainfall of between 0–50 mm at Swakopmund and

Gobabeb The Gobabeb Namib Research Institute, short: Gobabeb, is a centre for dry land training and research in Namibia. It is located in the Namib Desert, south-east of Walvis Bay. Gobabeb was founded by the Austrian entomologist Charles Koch in ...

. Long-term records from the

Rössing Uranium Mine The Rössing uranium mine in Namibia is the longest-running and one of the largest open pit uranium mines in the world. It is located in the Namib Desert near the town of Arandis, 70 kilometres from the coastal town of Swakopmund. Discovered i ...

, situated 5 km north of the Husab mine, show an annual average rainfall of between 30–35 mm per annum. A hydrogeology report commissioned by Swakop Uranium concluded that the mining activities will have an effect on water levels. Although there are no farmers or settlements in the area, Swakop Uranium has drilled a number of groundwater monitoring holes around the pit, the waste rock dump, the tailings storage facility, the Welwitschia fields as well as the Khan and Swakop Rivers to measure the effect of mining activities in the area. All the boreholes have their water levels measured monthly and strategic boreholes are sampled every three months for water quality.

Air quality

In order to reduce the dust produced by mining operations to acceptable levels, the Husab mine will employ a number of dust suppression methods such as using water, extraction fans, chemicals, and other suppressants. A dust suppressant will be used on the pit, dump haul roads and other gravel site roads. The use of alternative suppression techniques has the potential to save up to 90% of the water that would otherwise have been required to achieve the same level of control.

Community

Swakop Uranium plans to engage in local procurement and recruitment where possible. The company grants bursaries for promising Namibian university students on an annual basis and has funded the construction of a new school. The company has also established a trust, called the Swakop Uranium Foundation Trust that will focus on training and education, the environment, infrastructure, health, and entrepreneurial development. The trust has donated N$100,000 to the Namibian government's Drought Relief fund.

Safety

Swakop Uranium has instituted a

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'' consisting of photons, such as radio waves, microwaves, infr ...

management plan. This plan has been submitted to the National Radiation Protection Authority and is regularly audited to ensure compliance.

Related deposits

There are four related deposits in the granite of the

Damara Belt The Damara orogeny was part of the Pan-African orogeny. The Damara orogeny occurred late in the creation of Gondwana, at the intersection of the Congo and the Kalahari cratons.; ; ; ; The Damara orogeny involved the suturing of the Congo– São ...

in the Erongo Region of western Namibia, namely at Rössing (SJ and Z20 deposits), the Ida Dome, at Goanikontes, and the Valencia. The Husab Uranium Project includes the Ida Dome 20 km south, with 9600 tU inferred resource at 0.02% (contiguous with Reptile's Ongalo). Ida Dome has estimated reserves of 53 million tonnes of ore grading 0.018%

uranium Uranium is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Ura ...

. The Valencia deposit has 2,731 t U proven reserves and 23,577 t U probable reserves, and at Goanikontes there are 3,187 t U proven reserves and 20,055 t U probable reserves. The scope of the SJ and Z20 deposits at Rössing have not been significantly proved.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Swakopuranium.com
Engineering projects Uranium mines in Namibia