Tsumeb. A Historical Sketch

Title: Tsumeb
Subtitle: A Historical Sketch
Author: Gerhard Söhnge
Series: SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH IN SOUTH WEST AFRICA
Publisher: Committee of the SWA Scientific Society
South West Africa, Windhoek 1967
Original softcover, 18 x 24 cm, 92 pages, 5 figures, 32 b/w photographs

Condition:

Very good. Like new.
Rare.

About: Tsumeb. A Historical Sketch

Tsumeb: A Historical Sketch has been compiled in spare time over a span of ten years. It has been my privilege to see dormant Tsumeb in 1946, revisit the burgeoning town in 1949, and live with it since 1950. To most newcomers it is a place where one accepts the status quo and proceeds from there. The geologist, however, likes to scan past records containing data and ideas that may at least deter him from venturing too far down a blind alley in search of ore. And so it came about that I paged through most of the dust-covered O.M.E.G. files on mining, smelting, exploration and general correspondence, many of the letters and reports handwritten in Gothic-German style.

Having extracted whatever information appeared useful, I drew up a chronicle listing the main items reported for the period 1906-1960. The almost sinful thought of developing this bare skeleton into a viable body came as a result of numerous conversations with old-timers still resident in Tsumeb. Even today one need only sling a fieldbag over the shoulder and disappear into the bush to capture the lonesome atmosphere in which the early pioneers found themselves sixty years ago - the stinging sun, flies and mosquitos, the thorns and razor-edged outcrops of cherty dolomite, the limitless blanket of tranquility. And before the European, who lived at Tsumeb? Who discovered the copper ores of the Otavi Mountain Land?

These questions led the writer, who positively hated history at school, to fossick through Africana source literature in various libraries, solicit stories, authentic records and photographs wherever they could be found, and assemble the bits and pieces into a more or less coherent record. There was at first no design of extending this further to the present, but with encouragement from the Scientific Society of South West Africa to complete the sketch for purposes of publication, the writer has added a chapter on developments since World War II, hoping that the more technical description of the present industry at Tsumeb will be of general interest.

Inhalt: Tsumeb. A Historical Sketch

Preface
Acknowledgements
I Early Times
II Exploration and Construction: 1892—1906
III Productive Era of the Otavi Minen- und Eisenbahn-Gesellschaft: 1906—1946
Tsumeb Mine
Ore Concentration and Smelting
Railway and Communications
The Tsumeb Way of Life
Town, School and Sundry
Prospecting under OMEG Auspices
Exploration and Miouiog by the SWA Company
IV Toward the Summit under Tsumeb Corporation Limited, 1947—1966
The Awakening
Mine Development
Expansion of Concentrator
Smelting and Refining
Transformation of Town
Mineral Exploration
Quo Vadis?
References