After our brief walk around, we realized it was time to go to the parking lot to wait for the tour bus. We saw a small crowd of people by the museum entrance, and as suspected, they were going on the same mine tour. Our tour guide arrived shortly, gathered us around, introduced himself, and gave us instructions. Our bus followed suit, and soon enough, we were on our way to Rössing Uranium Mine.
Rössing Uranium Mine 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, which is 70 kilometres from the coastal town of Swakopmund. The mine started operations in 1976 and, in 2005, produced 3,711 tonnes of uranium oxide, becoming the fifth-largest uranium mine with eight per cent of global output. This also made Namibia the world’s fourth-largest exporter of uranium.
Truth be told, it was really my husband who was very enthusiastic about this tour because of his geology background and his previous business dealings with Rio Tinto-Zinc, its operator, but I did not mind going with him. I had never been to a real open-pit mine before this trip, and this one was massive. It’s about three kilometers long and one kilometer wide. Imagine that!
Uranium was first discovered here in the 1920s but attempts to develop the mine failed. The concession was drafted to Rio Tinto-Zinc in 1965. The company employs about 2,500 workers and plays an essential role in Namibia’s economy.
Our two and a half-hour mine tour included a film-showing that was more like a corporate video presentation to me. It talked about the company, their business practices, the safety standards that they adhere to, and the positive impact of this mine to the community and the country.
This left my husband disappointed because the presentation did not cover the geological aspect of mining. He was saying that they could have included a description of uranium itself and its chemical and nuclear properties, its discovery here in Namibia, and the process of extraction.
I told him that maybe the company assumes most visitors go there just to see the “open hole” and that very few are actually interested in the science. Perhaps, they reserve the more specialized presentations for their meetings with business partners or the academia, not regular tourists. The tour that we signed up for was, after all, marketed as more of a sightseeing tour than a geological one. Or maybe, they do not conduct those tours at all in order to avoid scrutiny by the experts, for I heard that their social and environmental practices are quite controversial, as with other companies involved in this industry.
There were educational posters and rock samples within the facility, but within our group, it was only my husband who examined them and asked questions. An engineer was kind enough to spend some time for a more in-depth chat with him, but did not forget to remind him that bringing home samples from the compound is strictly prohibited. My husband was of course, disappointed again.
Next, we were led outside for a drive around the facility. We stopped at a view point where we stayed for around twenty minutes to look at the open-pit mine and take pictures. Within the grounds were a couple of machinery parts – an excavator bucket and a giant tire. We took more pictures then joined the queue for the washroom before we boarded the bus again to return to Swakopmund.
(Update: In 2018, Rio Tinto agreed to sell its controlling stake in Rössing to a state-backed Chinese company. The sale was completed in 2019 and the mine is now owned by the China National Uranium Corporation, Ltd.)
Photo Credit:
reuters.com