2015

Namibia, Africa

Only mineral dealer in Tsumeb ... Miner's Camp Goboboseb ... Miner's Market

On April 8-24, we (Anne & Cortney) traveled to Namibia in south west Africa for our second mineral safari tour to that country. This time the tour was lead by our great friends Pat Tucci and Zelda Bailey, the new owners of Geodite and long-term mineral dealers from the Colorado Front Range area. As this was the first tour offered by the new Geodite, it was doubbed the “Guinea Pig” tour and several appropriate mascots accompanied us on the trip.

Namibia is the first country in the world to incorporate the protection of the environment into its constitution. Some 14% of the land is protected, this in a country slightly more than half the size of Alaska. The terrain is mostly high plateau with the Namib desert along the coast and the Kalahari Desert in the east. It looks a lot like southwestern New Mexico, especially if you replace the mesquite with acacia trees. The tropic of Capricorn runs through the middle of the country. Namibia has a desert climate, it is hot, dry, and rainfall is very sparse and erratic. We arrived at the end of the rainy season and into their autumn. Still hot in the north (Etosha) yet foggy and cooler along the coast (Swakopmund).

Our primary objective for visiting Namibia was the purchase of minerals. We were able to purchase the following minerals while in the country:

Almandine (garnet), Amethyst (quartz), Anglesite, Aquamarine (beryl), Azurite, Calcite with Phlogopite, Carrusite, Dementoid (garnet), Dioptase, Epidote, Fluorapatite, Fluorite, Halite, Prhenite, Smoky Quartz, Topaz, and Tourmaline.

Mindat.org lists 715 valid minerals for Namibia in general, 100 of which are type localities (many of those from Tsumeb). Namibia is divided into 13 mining regions, of which we visited the Erongo and Otjikoto (Tsumeb) regions.

Namibia is heavily dependent on the extraction and processing of minerals for export. Mining accounts for about 12% of GDP and provides more than 50% of foreign exchange earnings. Namibia is a world-class producer of gem quality rough Diamonds (marine & beach deposits), Uranium (4th largest world producer), Zinc and acid-grade fluorspar (fluorite). Namibia also produces large quantities of Gold, Copper, Lead, Salt and Dimension Stone.

Highlights of our trip included visits to the village of Tubissis for minerals, the settlement of Uis and outlying Gobobseb for minerals, the Cheetah Conservation Fund, the town of Tsumeb and its museam, the Hoba meteorite, Etosha National (wildlife) Park with thousands of animals, the town of Swakopmund along the Skeleton Coast (Atlantic ocean) along with the Kristalle Gallerie and Namib Sand Dunes, the Cape Cross seal colony and salt deposits, the Uiba-Oas Crystals Market (Spitzkoppe open-air Market) for more mineral shopping, and the capital city of Windhoek. We spent eighteen days in-country.

The hardest part of the entire trip was the 32 hour time period between boarding the plane in Windhoek and arriving in Albuquerque, including the 16.5 hour flight between Johannesburg, South Africa and JFK, New York.