The Matchless Mine is a copper mine in

Khomas Region Khomas is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior trans ...

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and e ...

, southwest of

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 20 ...

. It was operated by

Newmont Newmont Corporation is a gold mining company based in Greenwood Village, Colorado, United States. It is the world's largest gold mining corporation. Incorporated in 1921, it owns gold mines in Nevada, Colorado, Ontario, Quebec, Mexico, the Dom ...

until 1983 when it was shut down due to "strategic and economic" reasons. In 2006, the mine was acquired by the

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

-based mining company

Weatherly International PLC Weatherly International plc is a British mining company which owns several copper mines in Namibia. Its operations include the Matchless mine, Otjihase mine, Kombat mine, and Tschudi mine. In 2006, Weatherly acquired the operations of ''Ongopol ...

through its purchase of ''Ongopolo Mining and Processing Limited''. The mine was placed on

care and maintenance Care and maintenance is a term used in the mining industry to describe processes and conditions on a closed minesite where there is potential to recommence operations at a later date. During a care and maintenance phase, production is stopped but t ...

in 2008 due to low copper prices. In 2012, Weatherly announced its intention to reopen the mine. It estimated that the mine would produce more than 3,000 tonnes per year. It is powered by the nearby

Friedenau Dam Friedenau Dam is a gravity concrete dam in Khomas Region, Namibia. Located southwest of Windhoek, it dams the Kuiseb River and provides water to nearby Matchless Mine. It has a capacity of and was completed in 1972, when the territory was occ ...

. The mine was placed on care and maintenance again in September 2015.

References

Copper mines in Namibia Buildings and structures in Khomas Region {{Namibia-struct-stub

See also

References