Aggeneys is a mining town established in 1976 on a farm of that name, situated between

Pofadder Pofadder is the Afrikaans name for Bitis arietans, puff adder (snake). Pofadder may also refer to: * Pofadder, Northern Cape, a small town in South Africa * Pofadder (food), a traditional South African food made from the same ingredients as Skilpa ...

and

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm v ...

in the

Northern Cape The Northern Cape is the largest and most sparsely populated province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley. It includes the Kalahari Gemsbok National Park, part of the Kgalagadi T ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

Origin of the name

It has been stated that "no-one is quite certain of the origin of the name Aggeneys". Derived from the

Nama language The Khoekhoe language (), also known by the ethnic terms Nama (''Namagowab'') , Damara (''ǂNūkhoegowab''), or Nama/Damara and formerly as Hottentot, is the most widespread of the non-Bantu languages of Southern Africa that make heavy use o ...

, suggested meanings include "Place of Blood", "Place of Red Clay" or "Place of Reeds". One author favours the last of these: the Nama word ‡''a'' means "reed" while !''keis'' means "place".

Mining and geological contexts

Aggeneys the town, on a farm of that name, was founded to service the Black Mountain Mine, an underground base-metal operation nearby, currently employing over 600 permanent staff. This

zinc Zinc is a chemical element with the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. Zinc is a slightly brittle metal at room temperature and has a shiny-greyish appearance when oxidation is removed. It is the first element in group 12 (IIB) of the periodi ...

lead Lead is a chemical element with the symbol Pb (from the Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cu ...

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...

mine Mine, mines, miners or mining may refer to: Extraction or digging * Miner, a person engaged in mining or digging *Mining, extraction of mineral resources from the ground through a mine Grammar *Mine, a first-person English possessive pronoun ...

is just to the west of the town.Aggeneys: Your oasis in the desert
/ref> The produce of the mine is transported by truck to the nearest railway line, located to the south-east along a virtually straight gravel (dirt) road. The diversified ore is then railed down to

Saldanha Bay Saldanha Bay ( af, Saldanhabaai) is a natural harbour on the south-western coast of South Africa. The town that developed on the northern shore of the bay, also called Saldanha, was incorporated with five other towns into the Saldanha Bay Local Mu ...

where it is exported out in 50,000-ton vessels from a 250-metre-long quay built for the purpose in 1978. A major zinc deposit has been identified in the nearby Gamsberg

inselberg An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, a ...

, also set to be mined. The ranges of hills, mountains and inselbergs in the area display some of the most diverse and complex

geology Geology () is a branch of natural science concerned with Earth and other astronomical objects, the features or rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Ear ...

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of ...

including some of the richest known concentrations of copper, lead and zinc.

Environmental setting

In a semi-desert landscape, lawns and trees planted when the town was established accentuate the sense of ‘

oasis In ecology, an oasis (; ) is a fertile area of a desert or semi-desert environment'ksar''with its surrounding feeding source, the palm grove, within a relational and circulatory nomadic system.” The location of oases has been of critical imp ...

’ and one of the town’s principal attractions is its

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

course. The town’s water wants are greater than could be supplied by any nearby springs, however, and all is kept green by water pumped up from the

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

some 40 km to the north. But beyond the edges of town the arid conditions and the unique ecologies on the various inselbergs, peaks, hills and plains, with their varied rocky and shallow soil substrate, support a wide range of plants, animals, birds and insects, including rare and endemic species. The writer William Charles Scully wrote that, “for sheer uncompromising aridity, for stark grotesque naked horror, these mountains stand probably unsurpassed on the face of the globe.”Cited by William Dicey, ''Borderline'', p 167. Average, but variable, annual

rainfall Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water f ...

at the town is about 112 mm, with greatest precipitation occurring between January and April. The lowest recorded annual rainfall (11 mm) was measured in 1992, while the ‘wettest’ year (220 mm) was recorded in 2006. Temperatures average between 15 °C and 38 °C in summer and between 0 °C and 18 °C in winter. Close by is the mountain of

Ghaamsberg Ghaamsberg is a mountain in South Africa. situated just east of Aggeneys, in the Namakwa District Municipality of the Northern Cape province, 33 km to the south of the border with Namibia. Its summit is 1148 metres above sea level. It is not ...

which is thought to house some of the last known indigenous Bushman tribes.

Transportation

The town is served by an airstrip known as the

Aggeneys Airport Aggeneys Airport is an airport serving Aggeneys, a town in the Northern Cape, South Africa. Facilities The airport resides at an elevation of above mean sea level. It has one runway designated 07/25 with an asphalt surface measuring . See al ...

. No scheduled flights operate to and from this airstrip.Airport information for Aggeneys Airport (FAAG)
.

DAFIF DAFIF () or the ''Digital Aeronautical Flight Information File'' is a comprehensive database of up-to-date aeronautical data, including information on airports, airways, airspaces, navigation data, and other facts relevant to flying in the entire ...

. October 2006.

References

{{Authority control Populated places in the Khâi-Ma Local Municipality Karoo Bushmanland, Northern Cape Mining communities in South Africa Populated places established in 1976